Best Batch Processing - Video Contact Sheet Creator software?

[binar]

Fellow Forum Members,
What is the best software one can buy or FREEWARE app that can convert MPG videos to a contact sheet containing little thumbnail photo captures of the video itself? I have Googled this and there are several apps out there that create video contact sheets, but what I am looking for is one with batch processing capabilities. Can anyone out there recommend one that can batch process through several hundred MPG videos without any hickups? I'm looking for results similar to this:

http://outlyer.net/site/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/freebsd-preview.jpg

In addition, is there any video contact sheet generator software out there that will generate a video contact sheet with a hyperlink hotspot embedded in the contact sheet itself, so that when I click on the contact sheet, the corresponding video automatically launches and plays in Windows Media Player? Such a software app would be the ultimate way to setup a video catalog on my hard drive. If I am mistaking about this can anyone out there share with me what is the most effective way to setup the most effiecient video catalog system for several hundred videos? Any info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Baldrick]

Tried Video Thumbnails Maker and movie thumbnailer?

[pcspeak]

Yes!

What he said.
(I diddled around with the same aims a while ago.)

[binar]

Tried Video Thumbnails Maker and movie thumbnailer?

Baldrick,
Thanks for the links. Video Thumbnail Maker supports batch processing therefore I think this is the correct tool to use.

However, I am wondering if anyone out there can help me realize an idea I want to develop. I want to convert all of the JPEG files this Video Thumbnail Maker app will batch generate to the SWF format so that I could include hyperlinks to the source video file itself inside of the SWF file as a hotspot.

What is the most effective automated method to use so that a list of 300 file paths such as: "C:\root\videos\education\Nova.mpg" gets combined with 300 JPEG files of video thumbnail contact sheet JPEGs into a single SWF file?

Once I accomplish this, I can use Irfranview as a SWF viewer and using my mouse wheel scroll through hundreds of SWF video thumbnail contact sheet files. Once I see a contact sheet that interests me, all I need to do is just click on the hotspot embedded in the SWF file and the video automatically plays in Windows Media Player.

Such a video catalog setup will be in my opinion the most effiecient setup to use. It will enable me to scroll through a multitude of SWF contact sheet files with very little effort and find the correct video to view. I would appreciate it a lot if someone knowledgeable in combining JPEG files with a list of hyperlinks into a single SWF file can offer any ideas on how to complete such a task as a batch process. Thanks.

[enter8]

Video Thumbnail Maker, as much I love the interface, hasn't worked well for me at all.

Using both the slow and the fast engine, it seems to successfully create contact sheets for about 40% of my movie files. And it doesn't make a difference what format either- it fails with avis, wmvs, movs, mpgs, you name it fails- a lot of the time.

It's supposed to utilize whatever codecs are installed on the system. I use mplayer (with the smplayer gui) and it plays 99% of the stuff I throw at it. It seems a little finicky about quicktime files, though, so I have quicktime installed for those. So, between two apps, I can play every format, but VTM doesn't seem to want to use those codecs.

I'm sure that if I looked at my movie files more closely, I could find a trend in what VTM doesn't play well with, but that's not the point- if I've got the codecs on my machine (and mplayer has 99% of them) then VTM should be using them.

[ScorpBY]

Video Thumbnail Maker, as much I love the interface, hasn't worked well for me at all.

Using both the slow and the fast engine, it seems to successfully create contact sheets for about 40% of my movie files. And it doesn't make a difference what format either- it fails with avis, wmvs, movs, mpgs, you name it fails- a lot of the time.

It's supposed to utilize whatever codecs are installed on the system. I use mplayer (with the smplayer gui) and it plays 99% of the stuff I throw at it. It seems a little finicky about quicktime files, though, so I have quicktime installed for those. So, between two apps, I can play every format, but VTM doesn't seem to want to use those codecs.

I'm sure that if I looked at my movie files more closely, I could find a trend in what VTM doesn't play well with, but that's not the point- if I've got the codecs on my machine (and mplayer has 99% of them) then VTM should be using them.

Hi.

It has become much more easier to deal with codecs since version 6.0.0.0 of Video Thumbnail Maker has been released.
Crystal engine uses its own codecs and does not depend on your system codecs.

Another possible problem with pocessing a lot of video-files at once was in "Memory economy mode" option (can be found in Environment window). By default that option was turned OFF and the program loads every generated thumbnail sheet into memory (to be able to show the result fast for user). Since version 6.0.0.0 "Memory economy mode" is turned ON by default. For most people it will look like more stable work.

Also version 6 of VTM is well documented - you can find a lot of useful tooltip hints and clarifications over elements of user interface.

Stay tuned!

[pandy]

@ffmpeg -i %1 -vf select='gt(scene\,0.5)',scale=192:108,tile -frames:v 1 %1_preview_scene.png

@ffmpeg -i %1 -vf select='eq(pict_type\,I)',scale=192:108,tile -frames:v 1 %1_preview_I_frame.png

@ffmpeg -i %1 -f GIF -vf "fps=fps=5,scale=out_range=auto:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease:'if(gt(a,1/1),128,-1)':'if(gt(a,1/1),-1,128)':sws_dither=a_dither:sws_flags=bicubic+accurate_rnd+full_chroma_inp+full_chroma_int:sws_dither=a_dither,pad=128:128:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2,setsar=sar=1/1" -pix_fmt rgb8 -loop 0 -final_delay 1 -default_delay 1 -y %1_thumb.gif