It would be very nice if one of the developers could look into support for comic files... Viewing them in the thumbnails mode would be great!
The files with extensions cbr/cbz/cba etc. are simple rar/zip/arj files with compressed graphic files (jpg/gif) in them. What is needed is only to pull out the first image in the archive and display it as a thumbnail... I hope that for someone familiar with DOpus plugin systems it should be simple enough?
You should be able to access the .cbz files the same as .zip files, by adding the extension to this Opus setting:
Preferences - Zip Files - Settings - Advanced - Extensions.
Still won't get image thumbnails for the archive itself, though. (Thumbnails when inside the archive, but not for the archive itself like you'd see for a folder with images in it.)
This would be a nice feature in general for zip files, assuming there are no huge performance issues.
That's exactly the functionality I'm thinking of. However, while I understand that for general zip image archives the "image folder" view would be better, I would still prefer to see for the comic files just the first file in "normal" thumbnail view, as it is almost always the cover page or title page, so that you know exactly what book or issue it is.
Of course, the two options might be configurable.
How do you know what the "first" file is? Just curious - I've never seen one of these comic files.
The files are sequenced by name/number, so the cover is the first file sorted by name. They usually end up this way also in the archive file (i.e. in the zip view archive sequence and sorted sequenced is the same), but cannot tell if it is always the case.
The files are not easy to come by, as most of them are, ehm, somewhat illegitimate, because the industry has not yet embraced the digital medium (and they should, considering iTunes and such successes). Everyone hopes that when they do, they do not go for the DRM-heavily-encrypted-barely-useful-proprietary formats, but they keep it simple. Not much chance of that, though.
If you install CDisplayEx you'll get a thumbnail generator shell extension for CBZ/CBR. Even if you don't use CDisplayEx as your viewer, it's useful to install just for the thumbnails.
Enable "use shell extraction for formats opus doesn't understand" (if you haven't already).
Hmm... It does not work for some reason... It is particularly strange as the Dopus file type manager itself shows the files as associated with the CDEx thumbnail shell.
Do you have a sample for each format (ie. cbr, cbz, cba and any others) ?
The relevant formats are just archive files (rar, zip, arj, etc.) of graphic files (usually jpg) with the extension renamed.
Some cbr files:
brianrobinsonstudios.com/comicscatalog.htm
Some cbz files:
Thanks for the links. I'll look into adding thumbnails support.
Hi (my first post 
), there's some news about this feature?
I was running dir opus 9 and I was able to have cbr/cbz thumbnails (I had installed cdisplayEx), but after a system format I'm no more able to view thubnails... dont' know why.
Make sure "Use shell image extraction..." is turned on in Opus's thumbnail mode preferences. (Just type "extraction" into the prefs filter to find the option.)
Thanks for the quick answer, but I've already activated shell extraction.
I uninstalled cddisplayEx and re-installed, now it works!
Thanks
Sorry to resurrect a dead thread but can anyone confirm if CDisplayEX is producing thumbnails for cbz/cbr files under Dopus 9.5?
I have the shell image extraction option set to true, and have installed CDisplayEX, but am not seeing anything different.
i see thumbnails for a handful of my CBZ files, but the rest of my CBZ and CBR files show nothing. i can't figure out what makes it work sometimes and not other times. very irritating!
If you add the CBZ extension to the list of Zip extensions then Opus will at least show you thumbnails for (up to) four images within the zips like it does for standard archives.
As for why CDisplayEx works with some files and not others, there are surely better places to ask about that.
I'm pretty sure if I ask on the CDisplayEx help forum why Directory Opus' thumbnail handler isn't generating thumbnails using CDisplayEx via the shell image extraction option, I'll get another snide reply pointing me right back here.
for what its worth i got it sorted. first i unregistered CDispShell.dll. then i manually cleaned my registry of all mentions of CBR and CBZ. next i re-registered CDispShell.dll and restarted Opus
now all thumbnails are displaying flawlessly 
newguy, is this under Windows 7?