MP TV-Series Thumbnail Updater .78 Released! (2 Viewers)

[Weeji]

UPDATE!
Version 0.78 of MP TV-Series Thumbnail Updater Released
Download Here

What this program does is generate thumbnails for your TV Series videos that currently do not have thumbnails, and automatically tell MP TV-Series to use your generated thumbnails. This only happens for episodes for which no thumbnails were found on thetvdb.com.

Please let me know of any bugs or additions you would like to see!

Changes from 0.77 to 0.78:
· Changed What is displayed in the output box to what is being written to the database
· Thumbs already found previously by thetvdb.com will no longer be written back to the database, now they are just left alone. This was causing problems with apostrophes in series titles on thetvdb.com.
Changes from 0.76 to 0.77:
· Added Regional Localization on Blank Frame Detection command. This should fix most problems with using this setting.
Changes from 0.75 to 0.76:
· Added "Enable Blank Frame Detection" Checkbox due to some users having problems with this setting.
Changes from 0.72 to 0.75:
· Changed "Undo" button matching method. Now works much better.
· "Update" and "Undo" buttons greyed-out while either process is running
· Changed "Blank Frame Detection" to 80% rather than 60 to help aleviate some users' problems with dark videos
· Now takes thumbnail at 4 1/2 minutes rather than 15 seconds to attempt to skip the intro on some shows
Changes from 0.7 to 0.72:
· Added "Undo All Changes" button to undo everything ever changed by MP TV-Series Thumbnail Updater. Useful if you have accidentally set a thumbnail without adding the video's extension to the extensions list.
· Added "mkv" extension to default extensions. If you have previously used MP TV-Series Thumbnail Updater, this change won't happen, and you will need to add the mkv extension yourself.

Changes from 0.65 to 0.7:
· Video folder previously didn't save settings, now fixed
· Movie Thumbnailer command window now hidden and unobtrusive when run

Changes from 0.6 to 0.65:
· Made program start minimized to system tray

Changes from 0.5 to 0.6:
· Added "Movie Thumbnailer" automatic thumbnail generation to make this an all-in-one solution.

Usage:
Open MP TV-Series Thumbnail Updater
Add any extensions that your videos might be in to the list on the left
Browse for your MP TV-Series database where it says "Database File" (typically found in c:\program data\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\database\TVSeriesDatabase4.db3)
Browse for your TV video directory where it says "Video Folder"
Set the timer at the bottom to the frequency you would like this program to create, search for, and set thumbnails (default is 60 minutes or 1 hour)
Minimize to send to your System Tray
Put in your Windows Startup folder

Notes:
Map a network drive to your videos rather than simply using the shared folder. MP TV-Series doesn't like shared folders, but accepts mapped network drives.

Please do not rename your files or folders or move them to another folder after this program runs. I think that MP TV-Series won't replace the thumbnail path/filename if it is renamed, but it hasn't been tested either way.

Please make sure that your thumbnails are in the same directory as your episode video files, and that they are named identically (other than the extension). Movie Thumbnailer (embedded in this software) should automatically do this.

Example:
c:\TV\X-Men\X-Men.S01E02.avi (video file)
c:\TV\X-Men\X-Men.S01E02.jpg (thumbnail file)

Known Bugs (Not Fixable):
Once this program sets the thumbnail, MP-TV Series will no longer be able to download the thumb from thetvdb.com for this particular episode. This is due to the fact that once MP TV-Series's database has a thumbnail file to reference, it no longer looks for a new one.

I know what some of you are thinking, "Why not just upload them to thetvdb.com?" Well, I was, until they deleted the tv series that I was updating. After I became frustrated enough with all that, I decided to take matters into my own hands and start on this.

 

[2BitSculptor]

Is there no way to set the normal TV-Series thumbs directory as the location for the episode screen capture files? TV-Series names the episode graphics as 1X1.jpg, 1X1_DVD.jpg, 1X2.jpg, 1X2_DVD.jpg, ...etc....

example:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\thumbs\MPTVSeriesBanners\Firefly\Episodes\1X1.jpg

TV-Series automatically stores them here, I have several TV shows and do not want to put them each into the episode video file directorys and rename them all, it seems too much work for one who is not computer savvy.

respectfully

Chuck

 

[Weeji]

Chuck,

This program creates the thumbnails for you, for episodes that don't already have thumbnails. It creates the thumbs and sets them up in MP-TV Series. Once you click "Update", you should be able to see thumbnails, that weren't there before, in the program. It ONLY does this with episodes that don't have thumbnails. It leaves the episodes that already have thumbnails alone. You don't have to move or rename anything.

 

[2BitSculptor]

I will try it.

Where does one install the program files, anywhere specific?

Thanks

Chuck

 

[Weeji]

Anywhere you want. Just make sure you point the browse dialogs in the program to the correct file/directory.

 

[2BitSculptor]

My episodes are in video_ts folders, it is not in the list, will this work for me? How long does the program take to generate the thumbs to show up in MP TV-Series?

Thanks

Chuck

 

[Weeji]

If you have already run the program, you will have to hit the "undo" button, add whatever extension your files are in to the list on the left, and run it again. I'm assuming that you would be adding ts to the list.

If all goes correctly, the thumbs will immediately show up.

 

[2BitSculptor]

I get the already present episode thumbs listed okay in the Thumbnail updater program.

The thumbs for those not present show up as (example) Thumb = M\The Munsters\S02E001\Video_TS\Video_TS.IFO

I am confused. Does the updater actually scan the video file, capture a frame and then create a thumb and db reference, or does one have to capture their own frame while running the episode, place the cap in the video file folder and the updater creates a thumb from that cap image?

Sorry... I'm old

Chuck

 

[Weeji]

Ah, you're using DVD rips. I don't believe it will work with those. This program is designed to work with video files, not DVD rips. The reason is that the IFO file is only a text file telling the video player how to play the DVD videos, and in what order. There's no way to grab a thumbnail from that.

I don't know how MP TV-Series breaks apart individual episodes from DVD rips, so there could be a problem with the method I'm about to give you. What you could do, is add ifo to the list on the left, click the "undo" button, and click the "update" button. If you look in the folder that your DVD rip is in, it might have created thumbnails from the individual VOB files in the folder. If it did, just choose one that you like, and rename it to the filename of the IFO, but use .jpg rather than .ifo . As I said, I'm not entirely sure that this will work, since I don't have any DVD ripped TV series.

 

[2BitSculptor]

I don't see any added files named same as the .vob file. Doesn't look like it worked, I checked several episode folders and found no picture files.

Thanks anyway... looks useful though, for some.

Chuck
---------------------------------
I think I may have found a use for this, yet.

I did a manual screen cap using F11 while playing an episode that did not have a thumb in the database. I put the thumb in the video folder as VIDEO_TS.jpg then ran updater. Updater filled the db with .IFO files as the thumb (not seeing the jpg file). I started MP Config and entered the TV-Series plugin config and changed the .IFO to .jpg.

When I entered TV-Series in MP and viewed the episode, the thumb was there for that one. I suppose any name would have worked, as long as I was renaming it in TV-Series config. So at least I can have the thumb added to the db, not automated, but it works.

Now to find a video thumbnailer that will scan the VOB files to automate the capture.

Chuck