MPEG-4 H.264 Thumbnails in Vista x64

[Darksaber11]

I know this is probably a unusual question, and I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask it, but I've been trying to find an answer on several other forums and haven't found anything helpful.

I am using Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit. I have the k-lite codec pack 64-bit edition 1.40 installed. Some .mp4 files I have display thumbnails in windows explorer, others (such as ones I have created by ripping DVDs with Handbrake) do not display thumbnails in windows explorer. As ridiculous as it may sound, this kind of aesthetic thing is very important to me, and I am very curious as to how I may fix this.

[RickA]

Greets,

If you have Haali Media Splitter installed... From the Start Menu go to it's Settings / Options / Explorer Integration / Enable Thumbnails Extraction. Setting Thumbnails Offset to 8000 will put the thumbnail pic at 8 seconds into the video (I believe). This works for the mkv's I create in Vista 32, assume it will do the same with mp4's as well. Sometimes it takes the Thumbnail Cache a bit to refresh with the new images. You can delete the hidden thumbnail cache files and force Windows to create new if you like. No need to really.

Cheers,
Rick

[Darksaber11]

Thanks RickA. I'll give that a try.

[Guest]

Before another person mentions the locked thread, please be aware that I've discussed this with the OP and this new thread is OK. Thank you.

[Darksaber11]

Nope, Enabling Thumbnail Extraction for Haali doesn't seem to have worked.

[STaRGaZeR]

Vista64 uses the 64-bit version of explorer.exe. If you want thumbnails, you need 64-bit codecs AND 64-bit splitters. I recommend you to install Vista Codec Pack X64 Components, because that will install almost every 64-bit splitter available to date plus ffdshow64, and then you'll have thumbnails extraction. However, as those splitters are not even close to Haali's quality, some .mkv won't work (like the ones containing xvid video streams). A workaround is to open the 32-bit version of explorer.exe for a moment, go to those problematic .mkv videos and let Haali's splitter do its job. Then you can close it and go back to the default 64-bit explorer, because the thumbnail will be already in place.

[Ronin-7]

In my experience Haali's thumbnail extraction only works reliably on XP, there are bugs with it working under Vista (x32 + x64) were it does not display the thumbnail instead it shows nothing but you still have the film style borders around the icon. Also it doesn't work for thumbnails in windows media center either.

If that's what is happening I'm not sure there is anything that can be done, I posted in the Haali thread about it a good while back. DivX are working on H.264 for their next release so they might be able to get thumbnails working as I'm guessing they wont be using Haali's splitter.

[clsid]

This may be helpful:
Q: No video thumbnails are generated on a 64-bit version of Windows
A: The 64-bit version of Windows Explorer is not able to load 32-bit shell plugins. That is the reason why it won't be able to generate thumbnails for some video formats.

The solution is to run the 32-bit version of Explorer. That will be able to generate thumbnails. The thumbnails are cached, which means that the 64-bit version of Explorer will able be able to display them.

Use the following command to run 32-bit Explorer:
Start -> Run -> "C:\windows\syswow64\explorer.exe" /separate
Source: http://www.codecguide.com/faq_thumbnails.htm#item4

[Snowknight26]

With only Haali Media Splitter and ffdshow installed (32-bit), my x64 Vista installation shows thumbnails for a small % of .mkvs (all are with H.264 video). Never ran the 32-bit explorer, so there must be another factor that did it.

[STaRGaZeR]

With only Haali Media Splitter and ffdshow installed (32-bit), my x64 Vista installation shows thumbnails for a small % of .mkvs (all are with H.264 video). Never ran the 32-bit explorer, so there must be another factor that did it.

That's impossible, a 64-bit process like explorer.exe in Vista64 can't use any 32-bit code. You must have something else installed. And I only know Gabest MKV Splitter (x64 version) for that.

[Snowknight26]

Like I said, only those two things.

Edit: Ah, I think I found what it is. I have a 32-bit XP box that would access the same files, make a preview, and place a thumbs.db file in the folder. So whenever I accessed the files on my Vista installation, it would show the thumbs from that file.

[STaRGaZeR]

Like I said, only those two things.

Edit: Ah, I think I found what it is. I have a 32-bit XP box that would access the same files, make a preview, and place a thumbs.db file in the folder. So whenever I accessed the files on my Vista installation, it would show the thumbs from that file.

That makes sense, a 32-bit explorer (Vista or XP) will display and store the thumbnail, then you see it in explorer64. However, as Haali is doing the thing, you should be able to extract thumbs in almost all your mkv files, not only a few %.

[Snowknight26]

That makes sense, a 32-bit explorer (Vista or XP) will display and store the thumbnail, then you see it in explorer64. However, as Haali is doing the thing, you should be able to extract thumbs in almost all your mkv files, not only a few %.

The few percent was from the other machine only viewing that said percent. Had the other machine viewed all the files, I would have been able to see all of the thumbnails too.

[lexor]

On 64bit front, guys in coreavc thread did promise that 64bit version of haali splitter is coming soon (that was right after 1.8.5 release). But then they have a ton of things "coming soon", some for several years now.

[Darksaber11]

Installing the Vista Codec Pack, and the 64-bit Components gives me thumbnails for my .MP4s, but now explorer occasionally crashes when trying to load thumbnails, and some of my older .AVI files don't display thumbnails.

[kemuri-_9]

thumbnails in explorer has always been a persistent reason for crashing....

[Darksaber11]

thumbnails in explorer has always been a persistent reason for crashing....

I've pretty much tracked crashing down to a few files that were already messed up anyway.

One last question. Is there any way to offset the thumbnail so it previews something other than the first frame of the video?

[Snowknight26]

With Haali Media Splitter, yes. Its in the options.

[Darksaber11]

With Haali Media Splitter, yes. Its in the options.

I didn't think Haali is what's decoding thumbnails for Explorer, because I have that option checked and set and it didn't seem make a difference. I just went and fully disabled Explorer Integration in Haali, and it does seem that it is what's decoding thumbnails for me... but I have Thumbnail offset set to 80000 and it's still showing the first frame.

[Ronin-7]

Windows 7 (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081030-hands-on-windows-media-player-12s-surprising-new-features.html) will have native H.264/MP4 support next year so thats the good news at least thumbnails should no longer be a problem.

If you follow the steps here (http://a8t8.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2518DD508BB713E8!265.entry) you might get the thumbs working for MP4 with Haalis offset feature.

[Fishman0919]

Vista SP2 will have native BluRay support.
Beta will be out soon. Read Here (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10074937-56.html)

[Ronin-7]

Vista SP2 will have native BluRay support.
Beta will be out soon. Read Here (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10074937-56.html)

That's for burning regular data to Blu-ray media not actual Blu-ray movie support . Only Windows 7 will have MPEG-4 ASP/AVC support native to it, WMP12 is unlikely to be released on other Windows platforms because of the licensing costs. Native Blu-ray movie playback to Windows 7 is unknown at this stage I'm guessing thats unlikely.