Thumbnails - again

I just got a WDTV Live Plus installed the newest FW no problems so far.

BUT - When I have tumbnail view on and I select VIDEO:Network Shares:WDTVLIVEHUB:MOVIES

and drill down to the folder that contains the movies I don’t just see the thumnail for the movie file. I see all the .png and .jpg files too! Hey I’m in VIDEO mode I don’t want to see the other stuff I just wanna see the movie with the associated .jpg file for the thumbnail!

Is there something I’m doing wrong or some way to filter that stuff out?

Works fine from the WDTV Live Hub

Folders are structured for movie type with all the movies in that folder not their own folder.

Like

Drama folder has ALL the movies in it and because of it being on the Hubs internal drive and because I’m using the Mojo theme (on the Hub) there are other images (.jpg) for backdrops and a folder.png for each genre the Live Plus shows me all that stuff too and I don’t want to see it.

flhthemi wrote:

Is there something I’m doing wrong or some way to filter that stuff out?

Nope, not doing anything wrong… it’s always been like that.  Unlike the Live Hub, the Live and Live Plus don’t have any local storage place to keep a library of things in a Networked location, so it can’t really keep track of what in the file list it’s given it should be showing and what it shouldn’t.  (Because an external USB drive can be reliably written to, the Live and Live Plus correctly hide the thumbs for USB-attached media.)

The only known work-around is to rename your .jpg files with a period in front of them.  This turns them into hidden files, so the Live Plus (and Live) still displays the proper thumbnail, but doesn’t display the hidden .jpg file.

ADD:  If renaming all your thumbnails seems daunting, you could get freeware like Bulk Rename Utility and have it automate the process, adding a period to the front of all your images.  I just bashed together a quick tutorial here: http://community.wdc.com/t5/General-Discussions/Quickly-hide-an-entire-drive-s-worth-of-thumbnails/td-p/239328

Ok…just wanted to make sure I had my head wrapped around this the right way…

Well if I hide them from the Live unit then the Hub won’t see them when it should? So I guess I just have to live with it.

No, the Hub won’t care if they’re “hidden”.

Both the Live and the Live Hub will still use the “hidden” thumbnail file to display the proper thumbnail… it’s just that making it a hidden file prevents the Live and Live Plus from showing the file in with the list of videos.

Same with Windoze.  When I “hide” my thumbnails, Windoze can still use the “.folder.jpg” file as the folder’s thumb.  Hiding them doesn’t make them unusable.

The Live Hub certainly has no issues accessing and using hidden files and folders… it makes extensive use of the “.wd_tv” hidden folder.

Actually, if you hide the thumbnails, they won’t show up in the “Large” icon of the gallery view.

The THUMBNAILS will still work, but the Gallery icon won’t.

That was as-of 2.05.xx, I don’t know if that’s changed in 2.06 or 2.07.

Thanks Tony… I stand corrected.

Actually, Tony, are you sure about that?

I don’t usually doubt you, and just take what you say as gospel, but I couldn’t really find anyone specifically complaining about it in the Hub section… all I could find is that one of the updates broke that large icon showing for everyone.  Or did the “fix” for that bug end up only working for non-hidden files?  Or am I just on crack again?

I tested this extensively back in May when I added that functionality to my XML Fetcher tool.

I made the following note in the documentation:

If you have WDTV Live / Live+ devices sharing the same files, ENABLING this option will prevent the Live/Live+ devices from showing the JPG Thumbnails as VIDEOS, while allowing them to be used as thumbnails. HOWEVER, this will also PREVENT the WDTV Live Hub from showing the large Thumbnail in the GALLERY VIEW (though the small thumbnails at the bottom of the screen will not be affected.)

That was on 5/7/11.   2.06.10 was released 10 days later, and I haven’t gone back to see what changed.   I don’t enabled that option since my Non-Hub see my NAS via a different “View,” so they don’t have the same backdrop files my Hub sees.

I’m thinking most people talking about that workaround don’t also have a Hub, and if they do, they’re not using the “Gallery” view frequently.   AFAIK, the Gallery view is the only view it DOESN’T work perfectly well in.  All other Thumbnail views still work fine as you said.

Ok… you win. :wink:

Thanks guys for the VERY informative answers! I’m using FW2.07 on the Hub and later today I might get a chance to try hiding a thumbnail and other jpg files. IF/when I do I will let you know what happened so you know how FW 2.07 responds.

“Unlike the Live Hub, the Live and Live Plus don’t have any local storage place to keep a library of things in a Networked location, so it can’t really keep track of what in the file list it’s given it should be showing and what it shouldn’t.”

…if so, we should also see the subtitle file in the list, but they are not. The same logic to hide the subtitles files should be used to hide pictures on videos list.

It should work as follows:

  • Network Browsing: show the entire contents of shared folders (as jpg, srt, avi, etc)
  • Video Browsing: shows only the video files (with minimal support for subtitles  and covers  as now).

If the problem is the write access to shared folders, then just add one ‘if’  to ask about permissions. And if you do not have permission, then shown the pictures, very simple.

Or in the settings section define a path to a shared resource (such as a shared network folder) where the player save the files necessary for that purpose. Depending on the availability of this folder, the player can display all files as now, or just the videos.

Need more ideas? these are free …

Come on, get to work seriously!.

luchus wrote:

…if so, we should also see the subtitle file in the list, but they are not. The same logic to hide the subtitles files should be used to hide pictures on videos list.

Er, no.  The subtitles files aren’t shown because they aren’t asked for.  The WDTV is asking the network device to report video, audio and image files.

It’s not just the image files being shown… if you’re in “Video” you can still see (and PLAY) audio files and you can view the image files that are visible.

If you’re in “Audio”, you can see (and PLAY) video files, and can see (and view) photos.

If you’re in “Photos”, you can see (and PLAY) both audio and video files.

So, the “same logic” that’s hiding the subtitle files would be to never ask the network device for a listing of them… and in that case images would not show up in “Photos”.

On the one hand, many users have explicitly said that they would never grant the WDTV write access to their shared resources.

On the other hand, you’re not the first (and probably won’t be the last) to suggest that if write access is granted, then compile a library on the share, and if not, behave as it currently does… or to see if local USB storage is present, and if it is, write the library there (like it does for the USB storage itself), and if not continue to behave as it currently does.

The issue isn’t that solutions haven’t been offered for years… the issue is that a satisfactory solution has never been implemented.

But personally, the issue has been moot to me for quite some time.  My thumbs are hidden and I don’t bother entering the music folders when I’m looking for videos, to care whether they should be “showing up” or not, and don’t bother entering the movie folders when I’m looking for music.  If any solutions ever did get implemented, they’ll have essentially zero effect on my use of the thing.  Simply hiding them has got it working close enough to as expected, without waiting for WD to tinker and break 6 things in the process.  Sure seems easier to just hide them.

“”““Er, no. The subtitles files aren’t shown because they aren’t asked for. The WDTV is asking the network device to report video, audio and image files. It’s not just the image files being shown… if you’re in “Video” you can still see (and PLAY) audio files and you can view the image files that are visible. If you’re in “Audio”, you can see (and PLAY) video files, and can see (and view) photos. If you’re in “Photos”, you can see (and PLAY) both audio and video files. So, the “same logic” that’s hiding the subtitle files would be to never ask the network device for a listing of them… and in that case images would not show up in “Photos”.””“”

ok, so what’s the sense of having options menu for video, music and photos, if when you browse the shared folders always listed all of the content?


““But personally, the issue has been moot to me for quite some time.  My thumbs are hidden and I don’t bother entering the music folders when I’m looking for videos, to care whether they should be “showing up” or not, and don’t bother entering the movie folders when I’m looking for music.  If any solutions ever did get implemented, they’ll have essentially zero effect on my use of the thing.  Simply hiding them has got it working close enough to as expected, without waiting for WD to tinker and break 6 things in the process.  Sure seems easier to just hide them.””"

is true, but if you have an image with the same name as a video (in the thumb mode), the player displays the video icon with the image and also the same image as an image file. Therefore, in my case I do not want a duplicate image (there is no difference between an icon and image in the thumb) in the folder view.

I understand your point of view, but gives the impression that there is a misconception associated with a file browser and a media browser.

luchus wrote:

 

ok, so what’s the sense of having options menu for video, music and photos, if when you browse the shared folders always listed all of the content?

Well, the UI and library code was pre-existing from the Gen1 and Gen2, which didn’t have access to network resources, and the existing code still works properly for local USB storage.

It seems like a whole lot of work, to completely re-write the U.I. so that it breaks local storage into “Videos”, “Music” and “Photos”, and then just lump network media all in one location.  It would be better to just fix the network library issues, so things were only displayed where they should be. :wink:

is true, but if you have an image with the same name as a video (in the thumb mode), the player displays the video icon with the image and also the same image as an image file. Therefore, in my case I do not want a duplicate image (there is no difference between an icon and image in the thumb) in the folder view.

That’s why I hide the thumbs.  The jpeg files don’t show up in the lists, but the thumbnails still do.  It’s much easier than waiting for WD to ever do anything about it.

If you hide your thumbnail files, they will no longer show up along with the movies they go with (but your audio files will still show up in “Video” and vice-versa).

And actually, to tell the truth, I find it handier to just have the files lumped.

If I’m done watching something, I don’t have to back out of “Video”, then go to “Audio”, select Network Shares, select the correct share, select the music folder, select…

I can just click on the music folder from within “Video” and save myself a bunch of button presses and waiting.  Or, if I’m in “Audio” playing things, I can just navigate quickly to video folders and start watching something.

But that’s just my personal opinion… for me the convenience outweighs how much it offends me to have things listed in the wrong place.