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13 January 2010

WDTV ThumbGen 0.9 released!

Version 0.9.8
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Link: Click to download or click "Check for updates" (v0.6+)
Release Notes:
  • At startup of the application (only first time) it can take a bit longer as it attempts to download several dlls needed by the new functionalities (temporary solution until I push them via autoupdate)
  • Added basic media info support for movies (show codecs, etc) in both the Select Folders dialog (when selecting a movie file) and the Results page (v0.9.8)
  • Implemented "kheda's fix"® for the "double thumbnails" via network shares (details here); basically a workaround for the WDTV bug of showing both thumbnail and movie through network shares (v0.9.8)
  • Added preview of the "wd_tv.jpg" (if present) in the Select Folders dialog (v0.9.8)
  • Improved support for labelling TV Shows (if the "Ask user .." option is unchecked the app is parsing file name, extracts episode or CD number and places it over the thumbnail automatically) (v0.9.8)
  • Bug fixed: Movie Player was leaving some of the screenshots in the temp folder (v0.9.8)
  • Bug fixed: Support for autoupdating multiple files was still buggy (v0.9.8)
  • Bug fixed: Retrieving subtitles was not done asynchronous (v0.9.8)
  • Implemented smarter IMDbID detection even without .nfo file and provide basic IMDb info (v0.9.7)
  • Last selected folder is now remembered (v0.9.7)
  • Added a switch to generate thumbnail only based on the "Use Movie Snapshots" without having to search first (v0.9.7)
  • Added possibility to specify own image for thumbnail (select from disk) (v0.9.7)
  • Improved filtering the movie names for episodes (v0.9.7)
  • Improved subtitles detection and new dialog to choose the correct subtitles version (v0.9.7)
  • Retrieve also the episode thumbnails from TheTVDb.com (v0.9.7)
  • Bug fixed: Sometimes the "Analyzing ..." information remained on the screen after processing was done (v0.9.7)
  • Bug fixed: A screenshot made without the cropper (sniper) cannot be stretched (was ignoring aspect ratio)(v0.9.7)
  • Added a basic video player that allows making video snapshots from own movies (cropped area or full size) and use them as thumbnails. Take some screenshots and then click OK. You'll get back to the results page where a new collector ("My Own Thumbnails") will have your screenshots listed. This feature requires proper codecs installed and also Windows Media Player v10+. Recommended codecs are Haali Media Splitter, ffdshow and 3ivx Codec (for .mov files).
  • Any .nfo or .txt file containing a valid IMDb ID (link or id or whatever) will be scanned and parsed and the ID found will be used by the collectors that support IMDb ID search (currently cinemagia.ro and themoviedb.org). If you select an image (in the Results window) that has some IMDd ID associated you can also generate a basic .nfo file that will store that IMDb ID (next time search will use it) by clicking the "Generate .nfo" button.
  • Some GUI tweaks and improvements (eg. Results are grouped where possible by movie name, folder.jpg for the current folder can be generated, exception handling improved, etc)
  • Added more sizes for thumbnails: 120x160, 120x180, 150x200, 163x245, 180x240, 200x300, 225x300, 240x360
  • Fixed bug in watermark text and improved dragging text over the image
  • Added "Save original image as"
  • Option to create Folder.jpg in the movie folder automatically together with the thumbnail
  • Subtitles support: inform if the movie has (or not) subtitle, rename subtitles with same name as the movie, automatic download of the correct subtitles
  • Fixed autoupdate mechanism to allow updating multiple files
Important: ThumbGen requires a PC with Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/2008/7 and Microsoft .NET Framework v3.5SP1 installed (can be downloaded for free here).
Disclaimer: THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

    18 comments:

    1. Excelent program!! Could you add an option so Folder.jpg is created in the movie folder by default automatically together with the thumbnail.

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    2. Sure, I'll add that in the next release (optional with checkbox, both files will be created folder.jpg and movie_name.jpg).

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    3. Hey - great tool - one enhancement that I would like (or maybe it works for others) I'd like to work on a network share or mapped network drive drive - only local drives show up on my system. Would that be possible?

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    4. It works already. I have my USB drive connected to the WDTV Live (which is part of my Workgroup) and I mapped \\wdtvlive\movies folder to letter Z:

      In ThumbGen I simply browse the Z: drive and works perfect.

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    5. Thanks - I gave it another try... and it works now. My problem was that I had run thumbgen as administrator, whereas my network share was established as my regular account and not visible to win7 administrator. Sorry!

      Bo

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    6. This is an amazing tool and I am very grateful for your work and your updates that you are tirelessly putting out there for us. The latest updates though to the movie thumbnail option do not allow me to capture the frame and let me just ignore aspect ratio and squeeze it into the thumbnail size. I was actually OK with that as is. I like the additonal option of the snipper tool but it is little more complex then before in the flow. Did that ability then get dropped or am I missing something? Thank again.

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    7. The sniper (cropper) tool is just an addition to the initial way of making screenshots. If you uncheck the "Use cropper" checkbox then when you take a screenshot the whole movie area is captured (like before).

      The "Take movie snapshots" button is moved now in the "Own Movie Snapshots" tab.

      There you see a list will all screenshots you made (if you go again and make new ones they will be added to the list); all you have to do is to type in the editbox the numbers of the screenshots that you want to appear in you custom thumbnail. If a screenshot was done using sniper (cropper) it will have the current selected size for thumbnails (basically the size of the sniper).

      Then you just click "Refresh my thumbnail" and you go and check in the collectors list "My Own Thumbnail"->"Custom thumbnail"

      And yes (I have just checked) if you made a screenshot of the whole movie size it keeps aspect ratio forever preventing you to stretch it. Anyway it would look quite ugly stretched but this is a bug and will be fixed in the next release.

      Thank you very much for your helpful feedback.

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    8. Awesome program. I have a question though. Is it possible to just create the folder.jpg and not the file name.jpg?

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    9. Yes, in the "Folder.jpg Tools" tab item you choose to generate the folder.jpg using the current selected image (this operation happens instantly) then you press either "Skip movie" (or press ESC key) or "Skip current folder" depending how your movies are organized (instead of pressing "Choose it" that will generate the name.jpg).

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    10. I used thumbgen, grabbed some great looking posters, loaded it up on the WD, and now im depressed...

      The whites are blownout, i mean seriously it looks like its had the contrast turned down and brightness jacked up on all of the thumbnails, but the movies themselves play perfect

      is their a way to fix this?


      ALSO

      Had a request, a way to enable "tv mode" and grab the poster / episode thumbnail like http://www.tvrename.com/ does it, tvrename would work, but they leave the damn folder.jpg at massive sizes, and the individual episode thumbnails get renamed to .tng or something, and not the proper naming convention for wd-tv

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    11. I am sorry that you are not happy with the thumbnails :( Can you please upload somewhere an original image + the generated thumbnail and then post the link here so I can check it? Thanks in advance. It is first time somebody reports this (I also have ~200 thumbnails done with the tool and they look nice on my TV)

      Regarding the "tvrename"-like functionality, if I understand you correctly, you would like to get your seasons/episodes renamed using some predefined rule (eg. S01 E02)? I am considering in the near future to implement some basic renaming functionality (not as complex as tvrenamer anyway, it is not the target of my app)...but for now, you can use tvrenamer to adjust the names and then use ThumbGen to get the posters (it is quite easy to reuse same season poster for all episodes and using the "Add Custom Text" function to generate the episodes numbers on top of the thumbnail).

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    12. no thats the thing the posters look fine on PC its just WDTV showing them wrong, was wondering if it was just me or if anyone else had experienced it.

      As for the episode thumbnails, no no i dont want renaming, im talking about the episode thumbnails, im not sure where but tvrename grabs and saves each episodes thumbnail. but their the wrong aspect/size (not cropped) and also they arent saved as the right name (their saved as 90345.tbn instead of the_file_name_for_episode.jpg...

      so was wondering if u cud grab the thumbnails for tv episodes like tvrename does from the same source and just save them with proper wdtv naming + maybe a basic automatic crop or something.

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    13. Brilliant. This program is perfect for WDTV owners. Thanks so much for making it!!

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    14. I cannot find a link for the download that works. Is there another URL for the download file?

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    15. Here u have a mirror:

      http://depositfiles.com/files/9e07u2fr8

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    16. Not aviable for Microsoft Windows 2000, the NET Framework v3.5SP1 is for Win xp. I don´t work WDTV ThumbGen in win 2000.

      Help me !!!!

      Sorry for mi inglish.

      Bye from Spain.
      Xavi

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    17. Lamento mucho que Microsoft .NET 3.5 no es compatible con Windows 2000. No hay nada que pueda hacer. El ThumbGen necesita cosas de 3.5 no se puede utilizar 2.0.

      :(

      (Sorry for my Spanish)

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    18. Error message in Thumbgen 1.2.9.1 This feature requires Windows Media Player v10+ and proper codecs like:Haali Splitter, ffdshow and 3ivx Codec. I have all of those installed but Thumbgen 1.2.9.1 does not work.

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