Image Thumbnails

[dapoppa1]

Think Tiger's Finder will include support for a Thumbnail view for picture and movie files, similar to that of XP?

[cwtnospam]

Open folder, set to Icon view, view options, set icon size: from 16x16 all the way to 128x128. As long as the file has a preview, you'll see your thumbnails.

[bugfixer]

Quote: Originally Posted by cwtnospam Open folder, set to Icon view, view options, set icon size: from 16x16 all the way to 128x128. As long as the file has a preview, you'll see your thumbnails.

cwtnospam,

I do hope that with Tiger the functionality you're talking about REALLY works as it should, because at the moment it's completely unuseful.
I'm going to explain.

I have a new iMac G5, 1.8 Ghz with 1 Gb of RAM. What happens is that if I create a Finder folder with the options you are talking about set, and I try to copy 50/60 jpegs coming from a digital camera into it, the Finder sucks all the CPU and does not finish its job.
I'm compelled to kill it.
With thumbnails activated, the Finder shows preview too slowly to be accettable and/or usable.
With a friend of mine tried also on a Powerbook, same operations, same behaviour.

-- bugfixer

[guardian34]

Quote: Originally Posted by bugfixer With thumbnails activated, the Finder shows preview too slowly to be accettable and/or usable.

Are you using "show icon preview" under View Options, or have you created icons for all your pictures (with something like Pic2Icon)?

[bugfixer]

Quote: Originally Posted by guardian34 Are you using "show icon preview" under View Options, or have you created icons for all your pictures (with something like Pic2Icon)?

I've used Finder options. The jpegs are from a 5 megapixel camera...

-- bugfixer

[cwtnospam]

Quote: Originally Posted by bugfixer I have a new iMac G5, 1.8 Ghz with 1 Gb of RAM. What happens is that if I create a Finder folder with the options you are talking about set, and I try to copy 50/60 jpegs coming from a digital camera into it, the Finder sucks all the CPU and does not finish its job. I'm compelled to kill it. With thumbnails activated, the Finder shows preview too slowly to be accettable and/or usable. With a friend of mine tried also on a Powerbook, same operations, same behaviour. -- bugfixer

Could it be that you're waiting because 50/60 files coming from the digital camera are coming over USB 1.1?

I have no problems on my Dual G5, and neither does my wife on her 1.6 Ghz iMac G5, but we usually use iPhoto for dealing with that many images.

[bugfixer]

Quote: Originally Posted by cwtnospam Could it be that you're waiting because 50/60 files coming from the digital camera are coming over USB 1.1? I have no problems on my Dual G5, and neither does my wife on her 1.6 Ghz iMac G5, but we usually use iPhoto for dealing with that many images.

The pictures can be copied over USB 2 or from a DVD, or from another folder. The effect of slowness of Finder is present even if the jpegs are already into the folder. If you select the Finder option to show the preview, you'll notice a 1 picture each second building time. If you scroll down the windows, Finder gets all the CPU available and sometimes does not complete its job and you're compelled to kill it with the shell. I wait 1 or 2 minutes for thumbnails that are never created.
iPhoto can be a solution, or even GraphicConverter creating its own thumbnails. What is suprising me is this bug is really annoying and it has never fixed.

Thank you for interest,
-- bugfixer

[cwtnospam]

I just tried it with 122 images in a folder on my Dual G5. I can scale the previews (icon mode) in real time.

I suggest booting from the install cd and running disk utility to repair disk and repair permissions.

[bugfixer]

Quote: Originally Posted by cwtnospam I just tried it with 122 images in a folder on my Dual G5. I can scale the previews (icon mode) in real time. I suggest booting from the install cd and running disk utility to repair disk and repair permissions.

Kind of you to answer so promptly, but the problem is not scaling, but to build the previews the first time.
In the middle of building, Finder sucks all the CPU and stops building thumbnails.... This can be done on a different mac, too, but the same os (10.3.8).

thanks - bugfixer

[cwtnospam]

Does it work if you take a couple of pictures at a time?

[bugfixer]

Quote: Originally Posted by cwtnospam Does it work if you take a couple of pictures at a time?

Yes, it works. The thing I do to put Finder in that condition is the following:

1) Create a new folder with options set for showing thumbnails
2) Copy from a DVD or a CompactFlash card 50/60 jpegs (5 Mpixel, so about 2/3 Megs) all together (select all and then drag them all to the new folder)

What I see is that Finder tries to update thumbnails while copying and gets all the cpu. It never ends the operation. After I kill it, I see all the pictures newly copied (when Finder comes back).
I've reinstalled the full OS, with combo update to 10.3.8. no way to make it work.

Try it and it will fail.

-- bugfixer

[nmerriam]

Quote: Originally Posted by dapoppa1 Think Tiger's Finder will include support for a Thumbnail view for picture and movie files, similar to that of XP?

No, it doesn't -- the support and behavior is about the same in terms of file types it will auto-thumbnail.

The good news is that it seems MUCH faster overall, and should help with folks who have Finder choking on big directories.

[dapoppa1]

Did you receive your copy yet?

[nmerriam]

I'm a frequent customer of MacMall, but the first rule of MacMall is you don't talk about MacMall until the 29th :P

[wyatt12]

Anybody figure out a way to do video thumbnails for a few thousand files in a folder yet? I was really suprised this wasn't added to Finder within Tiger. XP still does this. Come on Apple!. Read this post. This is such a great feature. I hate XP, but love their movie thumbnail feature.

In the mean time it seems to me that someone could write a script to go through a folder and make the first frame of a movie the icon for the file.

Even Linux has this feature. Gnome's file explorer nautilus uses the open source "totem-video-thumbnailer" software to generate the previews.

Regards,

Wyatt

[wyatt12]

Ohhh Baby. I have found a quick solution. As mentioned above CocoThumbX does pics, but as of their latest version, it now creates thumnbail previews for movie files. I just tested it and it works perfectly. Until Apple adds the feature, I highly reccommend this software.

http://www.stalkingwolf.net/software/cocothumbx/


Wyatt

[dapoppa1]

Great tip! CocoThumbX does the job perfectly.

[schneb]

Quote: Originally Posted by wyatt12 it now creates thumnbail previews for movie files. I just tested it and it works perfectly.

At first I was skeptical, I usually pick the image I want to represent the video and not some automated utility that insists on capturing the first frame, which is usually black. However, I did not like how I could not tell my movies from my pictures.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that CocoThumbX not only put a filmstrip border to distinquish it from being a photo, it also set a random frame as the icon. I also noticed that if I redrag the video file onto CocoThumbX, it will drop a different frame into the preview icon.

[wyatt12]

Quote: Originally Posted by schneb At first I was skeptical, I usually pick the image I want to represent the video and not some automated utility that insists on capturing the first frame, which is usually black. However, I did not like how I could not tell my movies from my pictures. I was pleasantly surprised to find that CocoThumbX not only put a filmstrip border to distinquish it from being a photo, it also set a random frame as the icon. I also noticed that if I redrag the video file onto CocoThumbX, it will drop a different frame into the preview icon.

CocoThumbX has some cool advanced settings. I personally prefer to have a big thumbnail of the movie with no border, this way I can more clearly see what move it is. I keep all my movies in "movie" folders therefore I don't have any confusion with picture files. In addition to CocoThumbX picking a random frame for the thumbnail, in the settings you can set it up to choose the first frame, random frame, or so many seconds into the movie. Pretty cool... I really love this software...

Wyatt