Preview-images for .flv video files in the thumbnail view?

Help & Support
1

Is it possible to have preview-images for .flv video files in the thumbnail view?

2

You should get them automatically provided you have the codecs/splitters installed to play FLV in Opus, Windows Media Player, etc. If playback doesn't work either, check the FAQ about it.

85bea7d453954823d442370adc4d3f1388896672.png835×570 285 KB

3

I followed the steps in the FAQ (Some movie/music formats don't play in Opus):

  1. Downloaded the flv splitter from inmatrix.com/zplayer/formats/flv.shtml.

  2. Installed the splitter.

  3. Registered the splitter FLVSplitter.ax with regsvr32.exe.

  4. Downloaded and installed media_center_mkv_etc.reg from the FAQ page to enable FLV playback in Opus.

  5. Opened Windows MediaPlayer 11 (a piece of sh.. I never use) in Vista: Unfortunately in this Windows MediaPlayer version there isn't any option to set the file-types, as described in the FAQ. So I tried to open a .flv video file in Windows MediaPlayer which said it cannot open this file type but offers me to download a codec. So I accept and WMP says 'acquiring codec'. After that Windows MediaPlayer plays the the audio part of the video file but does not show the video.

  6. .flv files still are not previewed or opened in DOpus. Gone to Preferences -> Plugins -> Viewers -> Movie (is checked): it does not display any .flv extension.

So what now?

My goal is to view the .flv thumbnail previews in DOpus but keep the default double-click open action for the RealPlayer, as it is associated now.

4

Finally got it: Found Vista Codec Package 4.5.8 Final somewhere on the web and installed it: Now DOpus finally shows the thumbnail previews. However, on some .flv video files thumbnails no preview is displayed (just a black space) - why?

BTW, Preferences -> Plugins -> Viewers -> Movie still does not show any .flv extension (to configure it) - why?

5

See attachment.

6

Try changing the Opus Movie plugin's configuration so it skips black frames.

7

It doesn't work: Increased the treshhold from 95 to 100 (maximum), still black frames are displayed. However, when playing the video in a player, no black frames at the beginning of the video are displayed. Maybe this is because .flv is not shown in Movie plugin?

8

If the movie plugin can't play a file it won't be able to thumbnail it either.

9

But, as I said, most thumbnails ARE displayed (please see tha attched screen-shot). Only a few are displayed with a black frame. All this video files play back without a problem.

10

Did you try increasing the maximum time option? And/or decreasing the threshhold option (I'm not sure which way around it works).

If you want attach a video that doesn't thumbnail and I'll try it here.

11

VERY strange: Setting the Maximum time per thumbnail from 2 (default) to 1 eliminated the black frames. But then after resetting it back to 2 (to make the cross check), still no more black frames were visible! But to make it clear: Of course I had pressed F5 before (when the black frames were visible), maybe are the thumbnail images in DOpus chached somewhere (like in Windows Explorer Thumbs.db)?

12

Prefs - Lister Display Modes - Thumbnails Mode contains a link to the thumbnail cache settings.

Or you can make a button which runs

Go REFRESH=source REFRESHTHUMBS

and left-click it.

Or, perhaps more useful, a button which runs

Go REFRESH=source REFRESHTHUMBS=ctrl

which will do a normal (cached) refresh if you click it normally, and clear the cache if you hold ctrl and click it.

13

Hi nudel, thank you for that. I've created the button (Go REFRESH=source REFRESHTHUMBS=ctrl) and left-clicked on it (without Ctrl) to refresh the thumbs of the actual directory. But when I go to any sub-folder of the directory where the thumbs have been refreshed then the thumbs in the sub-folders are being refreshed too when I open a sub-folder (without clicking the button). So it seems the whole cache has been cleared instead of refreshing the thumbs just for that directory?

BTW, where is the Thumbs Cache located? Is it a single file, or are there more Cache files?

14

I think clicking it with Ctrl will clear the entire cache (the same as clicking the Empty button in the thumbnail cache preferences window), not just the cache for the current directory. Not 100% sure though.

If you type /dopuslocaldata/Thumbnail Cache into the location field in Opus it will take you to where the cache is stored. It will normally be in multiple files (unless you upgraded from Opus 8 and have not emptied the cache since).

15

This is possibly a better way: When you change the Movie plugin's settings, also toggle the "Add sprockets to movie thumbnails" option. That should cause just the movie plugin's cached thumbnails to be refreshed automatically.

(I don't think the automatic refresh is triggered by the max-time and black threshhold options... Just guessing, though.)

16

I clicked the above button with Ctrl, but the Thumbs cache was not cleared (the files in the cache directory were still there). Only , when clicking the Empty button in the Thumbnail Cache Settings dialog, the files in the Cache directory were removed. So why the button does not work?

17

Maybe it does only clear the current directory's thumbs from the cache. I don't know exactly what it does but I can see that when I hold Ctrl and click the button it definitely re-generates the thumbnails in the current folder.