goodgotd
Member
version 4.11 has just been released, with the following updates:
Changes 4.11 (05/26/2010):
*
General bug fixing at "Thumbnails browser". Now it works as expected.
*
Small aesthetics changes at "Thumbnails browser". Added buttons "Goto first" and Goto last".
*
Updated routines for multimedia files.
Idunnobutiwastold
Gaming Acolyte
Thanks, Goodgotd ! I didn't know about this program before.
For anyone looking for the official site, see here:
http://www.insidecat.biz/
goodgotd
Member
oooops for not putting the URL in, my bad for being strung out on too blody many pain pills- today has been serious agony.
But- and I'll stand by this- InsideCat is the only disc catalog I know of that captures serious data automatically from multimedia, and archive files and (the pro version) can handle an array of 912 DVD-R's and still retain the speed to make it useful.
As in, a load time of just 10 seconds with 912 full DVD-R's of mixed data, movies, and music- and a search time across that many in just 8 seconds flat.
.
The Lite version can be made to handle that many discs, you just have to limit it to accessing <100 discs at a time- I did it for years before I managed to get the dinero for the Pro version.
(how-to details on request- I'm too looped to try and be *that* coherent at the moment. there are some features that aren't available in the Lite version but it still has a *lot* of functionality)
see my test results and opinions in the "DVD software backups cataloguing software - any ideas?" thread.
Disk Explorer Pro is freeware, and in some areas actually grabs more detail than InsideCAT, though it has as much or more difficulty *displaying* those details than it's shareware opponent, but my mind boggles to think of how much it would slow down by that point.
If all you need is a basic listing for file names vs. disc label, there are lots out there that would do fine, but for serious data on just what the files are- IC is the program to beat.
If it loaded it's database in memory and operated it there, it might give IC a bit of a run for it's money- but it stays at hard drive speeds. Though the database still wouldn't compress as well.
On a SATA II drive with no bottlenecks, the ratio of cataloged discs vs time to search for DEP would be better, but not good enough. (With my system I can't get past the transfer speed of the standard PCI bus that the SATA adapter card is plugged into.)
IC is the only rational choice for me anyway, since I use it often during each day. Enjoy!
(and I *still* haven't gotten a response from the author of Gentibus...)
caulbox
Member
Thanks for the heads up on the update goodgotd. I echo your praises of InsideCAT, and when I read your post detailing changes in 4.11, I thought it might be just what I was wishing for! As I report in this topic, the view thumbnail feature was definitely temperamental (on my system at least). Just occasionally I'd encounter (access violation) problems if/when I attempted to visualise the (sometimes hundreds of) thumbnails which were nested within whatever folder (or disk) I currently had selected. I suspect the issue could be memory related? Usually, a second attempt at viewing the same thumbs, immediately after re-opening InsideCAT would work fine, but I did learn to be a bit patient during opening (and closing) of the thumbnails browser window, when I suspected or knew in advance that many hundreds of thumbnails were involved.
Having (eagerly) installed the 4.11 update, I have to say that I'm left with mixed feelings. Unless I'm missing something in the setup options?....InsideCAT no longer searches recursively for thumbnails in nested folders, but now seems to have become limited to showing only the thumbs in the precise single directory which is selected.
To repeat what I said in the earlier topic, the view thumbnails feature (prior to ver 4.11) helped me to locate files with names that I'd long forgotten - from pictures only. I was happy to live with the slight bugginess, as this feature had proven to be an invaluable asset. Sadly, if I can now only view thumbnails in a single selected directory....IMO a truly great feature, has met a demise :(
caulbox
Member
....reverted back to 4.10. I'm not sure if I'll be missing much with the "updated routines for multimedia files" in 4.11. But the means to locate forgotten files via the thumbnail browsing route has become an essential feature, which I'm reluctant to deny myself. I rather suspect that I'll remain with 4.10, whilst continuing to hope that some future update will include a thumbnail browser, which 'regresses' back to the displaying of nested thumbnails, but with glitches fixed.
I'm curious goodgotd....I use the free lite version. Is it the same change of thumbnail browsing in the pro update?
goodgotd
Member
setup, advanced options tab, search full path checkbox. AFAIK it should be in the lite version too, but until I catalog a disk (a it later) with nested pix, I don't know- I never knew it had it. I just recently checked that box myself. I didn't know it was possible, sorry..
caulbox
Member
Yeah, there is an option in the lite version as well, to "Search full path (not only file name)". That's the first thing I tried to be honest. But unfortunately (in the lite version at least) InsideCAT seems to have permanently lost the ability to show nested thumbs in the thumbnail browser (irrespective of whether I check that option or not) - I now just get a message box instead, stating that there are no photos to visualize :(
Referring to the changelog comments about the browser, I suppose it is a possibility that "Now it works as expected". But I remain of the opinion that changing the behaviour in such a way has killed what was a very useful feature. For me, it's a major step backwards in the program's practical functionality and usefulness.
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
Thanks goodgotd, I'll have to buy the Pro version when I get home. :)
caulbox
Member
come to think of it, how *do* you display nested thumbnails?
AFAIK Prior to 4.11 it's default behaviour for the thumbnail browser to display thumbs (where applicable) of all files (however deeply nested) within a particular directory whenever you click the button to "visualise all the thumbnails of this folder". You can even commence from a selected DVD catalogue, and view the entirety of thumbnails which have been created for that disk. Certainly in the lite version, this is constant default behaviour and doesn't seem to have any bearing on whatever setup options might have been configured.
Most of the disks I catalogue consist of either collections of software utilities or of 3D stuff. As well as being a great tool for locating sought for files with unknown names, this (old) thumbnail browser behaviour also provides the means to remind myself of stuff on archived disks, which perhaps I dismissed when first downloaded, but I might now think are worthy of another look. I've re-discovered countless gems this way - hence my reluctance to update.
goodgotd
Member
hmm... looks like back to the books. as in reading the help. I have all the updates stored, so reverting and then re-cataloging discs isn't too much of a problem. Though as far as I could see, pics in archives never got thumbnails made the last disc I had such on it. But I'm at 4.11 already, so I'll check into it.
And then email victor. again.
caulbox
Member
Just to avoid any confusion, when I referred to 'archived disks' earlier, I wasn't using the term 'archive' in the (computer) sense relating to compressed files. I don't think pics in compressed zipped archives do get thumbnails made. For general thumbnail creation, there's an option in the advanced settings to "do not create thumbnails of photos". Make sure it's unchecked. This option is also repeated, and presented once again in the dialogue window which appears whenever you create a new disk catalogue. Again, it should be left unchecked.
If it helps in comparing versions....I can tell you that whilst testing myself, I've been repeatedly overwriting my installation (using 4.11 and 4.10 lite setups) rather than uninstalling the existing one first - and I encountered no problems whatsoever changing versions (very quickly) for testing purposes in such a way.
goodgotd
Member
ookay- where's the thumbnail browser you're using?
I'm re-cataloging (using 4.11, ignore disc serial, and an altered disc volmue label- HP_CAN_test) my HP_CAN_010 DVD-R, (part of my sequestered InsideCAT Photofiles disc catalog directory- why have it searching 60,000+++ photos when I'm searching for a movie or software? Sp far I have 4 DVD-R's of C200 pix, 7 discs of pure Hewlett-Packard Photosmart M517 5 megapixel images, and 26 mostly Canon PowerShot A720is images with a few HP M517 and R707 5 mp images mixed in- I'm 2 gigs into getting HP_CAN_27 burned, and until they are burned they are stored on 3 different hard drives on 2 different computers so I don't lose any) and so far it's creating thumbnails fine if- as usual- rather slowly working on solid blocks of 8 megapixel Canon A720IS images (it's the seek time on the DVD drive, not the program that makes it drag)- and when I looked at the same disc's catalog created by (I'm guessing from the date- I use a tranfer program that makes a subdirectory whose name is the date, then copies the pictures off the SD card into it) about version 4.02, when I get into the date's details and click on a jpeg file the thumbnail appears in the lower right corner of the program window beside the other information.
As usual, in other words.
At this point in time so far the info says 680 multimedia and 605 thumbnails at 59.2% done on the disk.... which is about right, mostly I get about 1200 photos on a DVD-R if all that's on it is uncropped 8 megapixel images, but this one has some from different sources, plus some PDF file to go with and take up space pix would use...
sounds like you are/were using something that let you look at thumbnails en masse without selecting a particular picture- I'd love to be able to do that, and very grateful if you'll tell me where it is and how to use it- and if it don't work under 4.11, I'll gladly email victor (again- I've reported bugs several times, as I have [at least from his reactions) one of the most massive catalogs of CD-R's and DVD-R's around being accessed all the time] and end up finding things that smaller collections don't reveal.
Pronto, even.
If you'll PM me I can give you my email addy (or you can give me yours- or both, rather inevitable if we exchange emails) and tell you what he has for workarounds and let you know when he fixes it.
good to hear from you, whiterabbit- Yeah, it's one software registration I've *never* regretted, and that was before I had better than a brick-sized 1 megapixel no-optical-zoom and ISO 50 rated Hewlett-Packard Photosmart C200 to make reminder shots with. It's indispensable and I've yet to find it's equal in speed and details. And I've looked.
goodgotd
Member
OK, caulbox, after rereading the above info you gave me (sorry, 30 mg of valium a day for 15 years and lotsa pain pills do make one overlook details, or misunderstand them) I found the button, used it, shook my head, used insidecat 4.11 to find which DVD-R had the 4.10 upgrade and was easiest to grab and slap in the drive (DVD_448_100322, actually) and tossed 4.10 over the top of 4.11, and yes indeedy-deed, Houston, We Have A Problem.
I will be emailing Victor as soon as I get my thoughts organized well enough to give him a concise and coherent picture of the exact problem (at the moment I'm seriously looped), and I'm sure we'll be seeing a version 4.12 real dang soon. It isn't a flaw in the thumbnail creation or cataloging process, as the catalog created by 4.11 is read perfectly well by 4.10. So at least I should be giving him a fairly precise description of the problem, and that will give him a lot less hassle fixing it. And IIRC, that button and function *is* in the Lite version (I just never noticed it, or if I noticed, didn't figure out how stunningly useful it is.) and should behave exactly the same way.
Cheers! feel free to PM me as I said, and I can toss you some photos I'm rather proud of.
Bob.
caulbox
Member
Thanks for testing, and my sympathy for your health situation.
I suppose mileage may vary for others, but "stunningly useful" is most definitely a description which accords with my own usage of the thumbnail browser. I too am very careful about how I organise and save my DVD backup disks. As Stephen will no doubt agree :) - I learnt the hard way that neat organization at an early stage can save so much hassle later when attempting to locate files. For me the process of organization has now become habitual, and commences at the download stage. I save all my new downloads into appropriately nested directories (on a partition which is used exclusively to house downloads whilst awaiting burning).
For example, saved files on all my 3D backup DVDs, now tend to be housed in an identical framework of directories. A typical DVD might contain thousands (certainly many hundreds) of 3D models, 3D clothing items, 3D props, 3D hair figures, 3D light sets, 3D animals, 3D pose files, 3D utilities, etc, etc, etc..... Similarly, within my 3D props directory there will most likely be nested sub-directories designed to house (say) vehicles, furniture, foliage, weapons, scenes, etc, etc. Again my vehicles folder will most likely contain further sub-directories relating to cars, motorcycles, boats, aircraft....whilst my furniture folder might house sub-directories of chairs, beds, drawers, tables, ornaments, etc. Usually each individual item is housed in it's own directory, and for many years now I've made sure that whenever I save (usually a zip file of) each item, I include alongside a JPG image which pictorially explains the contents of the saved file.
Say I'm working on a 3D scene, and I need to find a particular type of chair which will blend nicely into the scene. Using InsideCAT's thumbnail browser (prior to 4.11) it's been a pleasure to visualise all the thumbnails within my "chairs" directory, and often I end up using items which I didn't know I had! Alternatively I might on other occasions choose instead to visualise all the thumbnails in the parent "furniture" directory, and sometimes gain inspiration which I wasn't necessarily seeking! Stunningly useful indeed!
If you do decide to report a 'bug' Bob....the possibility I referred to earlier remains? I suppose it just might be the case that the thumbnail browsing behaviour was changed quite intentionally for some reason, and is now working as expected? If so, then I hope I've managed to make clear by (yet another) example, why I consider the change to be a major step backwards.
goodgotd
Member
PM me- it sounds a lot like exchanging ideas might be fun, but right now it's 3am and I'm back to not thinking or understanding clearly.
I just sent a long, detailed bug report to victor.
I have a somewhat different priority system and organization model, but as I told him:
"I grant you this is of importance mostly to people who work with a bunch of images and need to find particular ones in a hurry- but I sure do, with some 86,000 source pictures and somewhere around 15,000 cropped to print aspect ratios, plus the odd few hundred panoramas."
And all of those are in a sequestered photo subdivision, as when searching for multimedia or software, I sure don't need to grind through all those photos.... I've gone over entirely to DVD-R, and right now I have 954 of them in the catalog.
Just 52 are filled with photos.
(I fired up the calculator and actually added the photos up, and the numbers were well above what I stated off the top of my head)
IMNSHO this *is* a bug that has me firmly back to 4.10 until fixed. May that be *real* soon.
caulbox
Member
I may PM later - but I'm not promising. Trust me, I've got my own reasons why I might decline. If you don't hear from me, please be reassured that it isn't anything personal. I'm truly grateful for your friendly invitation.
"And therefore as a stranger give it welcome." but....
(wish I could say more)
goodgotd
Member
well, if it helps, I'm a hermit, secretive, paranoid, and value my privacy high- and the privacy of others- which is why I have a chameleon email address that lets me give a separate, unique email adddress to *every person or website I deal with* and can filter out any one of them that becomes abusive or spams me by the sender. And if someone doesn't want to send a message more than once a year, that's fine by me.
And the email client I use is a *very* hard target for malware trying to find my contact list.
If said malware makes it past 2 cascaded hardware router firewalls and one software firewall in the first place. hasn't happened in a long time.
In fact I have 2 of those accounts, plus one simpler one that I use on the rare occasion when bad website programming reject the others- actually I have 5 of those, they came with the ISP subscription- I have only activated 2 so far, so I have 3 I can burn if I need to. I never leave emails on servers, despise webmail, etc.
Any of that help? Use a free burnable email if you want- I'll understand. and even approve.
and you nailed it, I was wrong (I hate that) the way *4.10* works was the bug, due to possible duplicated thumbnail filenames. and I gave victor some possible ways to make it work right the way we consider the sensible way and avoid name collisions.
if you want the upgraded features from 4.11 in 4.10, here's his workaround:
You can use v 4.10 if you like. No problem. Just copy the two big DLL
files (MediaInfo.dll and FreeImage.dll) from v4.11 folder to v4.10
folder. But remember the problem with duplicated filenames..
caulbox
Member
WoW! That was quick. Cheers for posting the workaround. I'll definitely be staying with a customized 4.10 version now. I'm certainly not complaining as I do use the free version, but isn't it sad that the gestalt thumb browsing behaviour had to change so drastically because of a solitary problematic part. I hope the developer reflects upon your suggestions, and maybe in the final analysis begins to agree with our opinion of what is sensible.
Thanks again Bob (nuff said for the moment)
goodgotd
Member
well, file name collision isn't a trivial issue when it happens, and while the meds make it impossible in practical terms to do programming- that was something I did for *fun* for about 15 years.
but I can still make suggestions to those who do.
as far as fast, that is Victor's usual response time to my bug reports. I even pitched gaotd as a way to get more customers by giving away 1-install only InsideCAT pro installs.
glad I could help.
goodgotd
Member
Folks desiring multilevel photo thumbnail browsing might want to hold off on the InsideCAT Hybrid v4.10.11 since it seems to choke on DivX 4/MP3 .avi files.
I got "GetMIDatosVideo failure on Z:Dirty Harry.avi: Access violation at address 008C6694 in module 'MediaInfo.Dll'. Read of address 0DA31001", though on the same DVD-R it did just fine on a DivX 5 / MPEG-1 Audio layer 3 file.
bug report on the workaround already filed. I've reverted to 4.10 in toto.
caulbox
Member
Occasional access violation errors (when browsing image thumbnails) tended to be omnipresent for me, even when using the standard 4.10 version. Such errors were not all that common, and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason for explaining or predicting them. Early days yet, but if anything I *think* I might be getting a few less occurrences since using the hybrid alternative. If your experience mimics my own, I wouldn't be surprised if you soon discover that access violation errors will resurface again when browsing image thumbnails, even though you've reverted back to a default 4.10 installation?
I still have the 4.10/4.11 hybrid installed, and as a very quick test, I've just made a new folder catalogue from a directory on my hard drive which contained nearly 50GB of video footage (mainly DivX, avi, mp4 stuff) which I'd downloaded from the internet archive (the collection includes the film "Virus" which is reported by InsideCAT as being DivX 5/ MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 but contained no DivX 4 films). So as a further test, I've just also now catalogued a very old (fun snippets) DVD which I knew consisted of videos encrypted with a lot of oldish codecs including DivX 3 Low, DivX 4, DivX 5, RealVideo 2, RealVideo 3, Cinepack, Indeo 3, Indeo 4, 1263, MPEG1 Video, MPEG-4 Visual, MS MPEG-4 v1, MS Video, S Mpeg 4 v2, S Mpeg 4 v3, Sorenson, VP3 (the audio in the DivX 4 footage is either MPEG-1 Audio layer 3, MPEG-2 Audio layer 3, or MPEG-2.5 Audio layer 3).
In both cases the catalogues were created very quickly, I didn't encounter any issues during creation, and can search and browse the contents without any problems.
Where I always used to encounter a myriad of bl**dy annoying problems, was related to XP's own video preview ability in explorer. I now choose to disable explorer's preview of videos - but prior to doing so, I experienced countless frustrations resulting either in explorer having to be shut down, or in related conflicts when I attempted to open the video footage in other software. Whilst there may indeed be a problem as you relate with the new MediaInfo.dll (Down to the hybrid?) before ascribing blame.... I just wonder whether you've got video previews enabled in explorer, and whether the preview feature could have any causal relationship which might result in (conflict) errors sometimes occurring when creating a catalogue? Just a shot in the dark.
caulbox
Member
I use a reg hack to disable explorer's video previews. Googling the net will reveal a lot of info, and I've linked to a pretty comprehensive starting point. I also have a utility by Doug Knox and Kelly Theriot called "xp_thumbnail.exe" which allows selective restoring/disabling of thumbnails for various file types. The util can be downloaded from Kellys-Korner (click on the link which says "Restore Thumbnail Views in XP").
Before rushing ahead, I'd recommend taking your time, digesting and understanding all available options. I seem to recall that one thing which annoyed me when I first disabled explorer's video previews (with the "regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll" reg hack), was that I ended up losing previews of images within explorer as well. I solved that aspect later using a "thumbnail.reg" file which I downloaded from the net - but even now (as I'm posting) I've just realised that the file I used was initially intended for Windows 98 and ME :( I'm going to start some further research myself now, and I'd advise others to be a bit cautious before jumping ahead.
Anyway, that's my disclaimer. There shouldn't be any problems if you're careful, but (as evidenced by my own just discovered possible earlier mistake), as ever, back-up first, and tweak your system at your own risk!
caulbox
Member
....I most definitely made a major mistake earlier :(
I'm glad this topic has made me realise the error, and prompted me to explore further. When I first started using the "regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll" command to disable video preview, my focus was at that time fixed on the "shmedia.dll" component, and IIRC my annoyance stemmed from the fact that re-enabling video previews (with "regsvr32 shmedia.dll") would not bring back my lost image previews. Eventually I found the reg values I used to restore image previews, and explorer has been previewing images ever since, but I'd no idea until the last hour or so, that the reg values which I'd added were intended for earlier versions of windows.
I now realise that there's an alternative reg command specific to image previews in XP (hadn't noticed the difference with my bad eyesight before). When I first discovered this reg hack I suspect that I might have been sometimes pasting "shmedia.dll" and sometimes pasting "shimgvw.dll". Although obviously very different, it's the sort of mistake that my eyesight (and time of day) has blinded me to on many occasions in the past.
Happy ending. I've now just deleted the key values which I really ought not to have added to XP, and was able to restore explorer image previews very simply indeed with the "regsvr32 shimgvw.dll" command - whilst my system continues to remain unhampered by the problem causing video previews.
goodgotd
Member
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm is as far as I can get- trying to get the utility pops up a 'Service Unavailable' page. <sigh>
goodgotd
Member
post it on http://www.sendspace.com and PM me the URL. totally anonymous. For both, dude. I use that as a cutout and up to 300 meg big file host alla time.
caulbox
Member
I'm wondering if my cache is sending me to a different page....
Try this direct link to the file:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/xp_thumbnail.exe
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