If you change themes and/or layouts of your thumbnails you may want to decrease the size of your images to load them faster. Or maybe you want to change all of your backdrop images from 1920x1080 to 1280x720.
This program does more than just resize, so you may find it useful for other needs too.
In Windows 7, to identify all of your image sizes, you can use windows “Search”. After selecting your files from “Search”, like *.jpg in whatever drive or main folder, add the “Dimension” category from the “Search” window by choosing from the top menu, “View / Choose details…”. Then you will see your image sizes and you can sort on them by selecting the header column name “Dimensions”.
While the “Search” window is open, also open the " FastStone Photo Resizer" program and have the two windows open side by side. Select your files you want to resize in the “Search” window and drag them over to the “Input List” section of the " FastStone Photo Resizer" program. Then select all of your settings in the " FastStone Photo Resizer" program. You can choose to overwrite the orignal files or not. Choose the “Advanced Option” to set your resize values or other image effect changes.
I’ve looked at many programs and this is the only ony I found that allows me to drag files I can select from windows into its own program. Other tools only resize one file or directory at a time, but by allowing me to select my own selection of files I have now a way to change all of my files in one batch process.
For image resize, convert, crop and canvas resize, I use xnview for windows, Tools → Batch Processing, it does everything but I think it’s a bit more complex to work all those available options: XnView for windows
I’m having a dilemma if I should use image covers, currently I only use double column text file names.
I tried a theme that I like, with a huge cover on the left (720 pixeis height) and file list on the right, but because I have a NAS, it doesn’t keep the thumbnail cache
As everyone already knows, it also looses a lot of image quality when it creates and displays the cached thumnais.
And with a NAS it creates them in WDTV limited memory… when I power off cache is lost.
I’ve read people can use link sheets for back drop images, do you know if it is also possible to do the same for Image Covers avoiding the image cache?
What the best solution for NAS (or network shares) and image covers?
I was thinking only to do the root exploit, to put the theme and the movie covers in a USB pen.
Do you know if that way I can display the original movie covers or wdtv still resizes/rescales caches them with high compression and displays them with bad image quality?
What about wdlxtv, does it cache the image covers or display the original image files image quality?
I think using the MediaLibrary uses those caches. I don’t use that. I just view movies by folders.
I removed all .wdtv folders. I have no issues with image display problems. All folder and movie sheets should be in 1280x720. Thats the native size for WDTV. Thumbnail images can be 333x500 down to 120x180. Smaller thumbnails mean faster display time.
When viewing folder sheets and movie sheets, I see no delay and image display problems using wdlxtv.
I was thinking only to do the root exploit, to put the theme and the movie covers in a USB pen.
Do you know if that way I can display the original movie covers or wdtv still resizes/rescales caches them with high compression and displays them with bad image quality?
What about wdlxtv, does it cache the image covers or display the original image files image quality?
If you you do this, you will have more space for themes, which you really do need for linksheets, but you are not going to get any advantage over the way that you get your cover-art. You can attach a USB drive to the SMP as is, with your movies and your cover art without having to do anything. The covers need to be int he same directories as the movies.
I am running my videos off a File Server, so should be similar to your NAS. I don’t get any latency in bringing up the cover art. wdlxtv FW can add a lot of functionality, but I am not sure it will do what you are trying to accomplish. Are your covers so slow in populating the screen when you attach to your NAS that they are causing you an issue?
It’s not a big issue, it’s just I’m evaluating options.
Want to decide if I will use covers or stay with double column text list only.
I’m trying to solve several small issues:
a) I would like to use big 480x720 covers at 90% quality.
I’ve read people can use 1280x720 link sheets with no delay.
Can I use 480x720 movie covers thumbnails at 90% quality without loosing quality ?
b) If I try to use covers, wdtv caches them with high compression, it displays the cached image and I see compression artifacts.
c) I use a NAS, I’ve read that with network shares wdtv creates the cache inside it’s memory, if I turn wdtv off I lose the cache.
There’s a small delay if image is not cached and now I must wait to read the original image, wait that cache destroys image quality and displays it… I would prefer just not to have a cache.
I want to trade display speed for movie cover image quality, but the cache doesn’t let me do it.
If it can display a 1280x720 movie link sheet (I think it’s called link sheet when it’s in the theme root), can it display a 480x720 cover thumbnail the same way without using the cache?
It’s not a big issue, it’s just I’m evaluating options.
Want to decide if I will use covers or stay with double column text list only.
I’m trying to solve several small issues:
a) I would like to use big 480x720 covers at 90% quality.
I’ve read people can use 1280x720 link sheets with no delay.
Can I use 480x720 movie covers thumbnails at 90% quality without loosing quality ?
b) If I try to use covers, wdtv caches them with high compression, it displays the cached image and I see compression artifacts.
c) I use a NAS, I’ve read that with network shares wdtv creates the cache inside it’s memory, if I turn wdtv off I lose the cache.
There’s a small delay if image is not cached and now I must wait to read the original image, wait that cache destroys image quality and displays it… I would prefer just not to have a cache.
I want to trade display speed for movie cover image quality, but the cache doesn’t let me do it.
If it can display a 1280x720 movie link sheet (I think it’s called link sheet when it’s in the theme root), can it display a 480x720 cover thumbnail the same way without using the cache?
Linksheet themes call up “backdrops” that show behind or adjacent to the covers or list of titles. They can do it fast, and those sheets are stored within the theme’s directory. Regardless of theme, the covers seem to always be pulled from the same directory as the movies. I guess you could ask one of the coders who has written a theme here, but notice how all the themes use essentially the same views for cover-art. I am under the impression that is because it is not something that can be altered all that much. WD has a standard for how the device looks for and displays your movie covers. If possible, you would need to write a theme to do this, and that’s a big if.
I believe you are stuck with pulling your covers from your NAS if that is where you plan to store your movies.
I understand your argument: “if it was not done before in a theme, it’s because it can’t be done”, that answers some of my questions.
Somewhat, but not exactly… :stuck_out_tongue: Just because it has not been done, doesn’t mean it can’t. I think that is a decent bet, but I have seen some pretty cool stuff coded for these boxes that I did not expect. Linksheets are a great example.
More to the point is that I have tried almost every theme the generous coders have posted here for us. We can see what the differences are between them , thus what they are able to change; and then we can see what is common between all of them. One of the commonalities is how all the themes show the cover-art in each view. For example, gallery view (cover-art along the bottom, sheet above) always looks that same way. The sheet above is completely different in each theme, and clearly customizable, but the covers are layed out the same. Also, we know that a sheet can be made dynamically with XMLs, or a JPG Linksheet that is static. But that bottom row of cover-art is always the same in that view, so I am assuming that the WD ROM is determining how the coverart is pulled and displayed. This the same with each of the other views available. We see what the coder has designed in theme, but the covers are always displayed the same.
All that said, no one knew about Linksheets, till one clever coder (sorry, cannot remember who but they deserve a ton of credit) figured it out, and then we had a brand new type of theme and backdrops that came up instantaneously. Changed everything. So could someone design a theme that used covers the same way that linksheets are used? Perhaps, I just have not seen it and what we know from looking at themes would indicate no.
I am about as far from a coder as you can get, I have just tried out a lot of them. Hopefully someone who has actually written some of the great themes available can answer if there is even a chance of doing what you ask. My answers are just conjecture based on usage,
