Do I need to buy the Pro version of Microsoft Expression Encoder to run CLAutoThumbnailer?
If you’re just going to be generating thumbnails (and not encoding videos), then you only need to install the free version of Expression Encoder. You will also probably need some sort of supplemental codec package (like the K-Lite Codec Pack) to thumbnail more video file types.
Why doesn’t CLAutoThumbnailer display the video codec name in the thumbnail page header?
I haven’t found any way yet to get that information using the Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 SP1 SDK. I may at some future time use some other technique to get this information.
Why doesn’t CLAutoThumbnailer display the number of audio channels in the thumbnail page header?
The information returned by the Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 SP1 SDK seems to be usually wrong so I just skip it. It usually reports 6 channels even when there are only 2. I may at some future time use some other technique to get this information.
How I determine which codecs/filters CLAutoThumbnailer is using to generate thumbnails for a particular video file?
Unfortunately, the Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 SP1 SDK gives no way of determining this information — since CLAutoThumbnailer intimately depends on the SDK there is no other way to figure this out.
The only possible solution is to use the Microsoft Expression Encoder user interface to reduce the number of enabled filters until there is only a single filter it can be using. See Microsoft Expression Encoder 4’s Video Filter List for more information.
Where’s the source code for CLAutoThumbnailer?
It can be found on github at: https://github.com/rm2/CLAutoThumbnailer
Where do I report bugs?
Report bugs or suggestions for improvements at https://github.com/rm2/CLAutoThumbnailer/issues.
Where can I get more help?
You can send a message to me via GitHub.com. Of course, to do that you first have to create a free account (if you don’t already have one) and then login.
If you are having problems with codecs, particularly if Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 is unable to import a video, then you can also try asking your question on the Microsoft Expression Encoder Forum.
Where can I download CLAutoThumbnailer?
The installer is at: https://github.com/downloads/rm2/CLAutoThumbnailer/CLAutoThumbnailerSetup-v1.0-20110610.msi
A zip file archive is at: https://github.com/downloads/rm2/CLAutoThumbnailer/CLAutoThumbnailerSetup-v1.0-20110610.zip
How do I install CLAutoThumbnailer?
See Installation.
If you’ve already installed CLAutoThumbnailer by executing CLAutoThumbnailerSetup.msi, you might see a “Another version of this product is already installed. Installation of this version cannot continue. To configure or remove the existing version of this product, use Add/Remove Programs on the Control Panel.” message. You can either do what it says or run the following from a Command Prompt window:
rename CLAutoThumbnailerSetup-v1.0-20110611.msi CLAutoThumbnailerSetup.msi
msiexec /fav CLAutoThumbnailerSetup.msi
How do I tell what version of CLAutoThumbnailer I’m running?
Run the following command:
clatn --version
How do I uninstall CLAutoThumbnailer?
Just use the Control Panel and uninstall like any other program.
How do I see what CLAutoThumbnailer’s default settings are?
Just use the -?, --help option. The default settings are shown within square brackets ([]).
How do I generate just a standard Overview thumbnail page?
Use the -i, --interval option with an interval of 0 to avoid generating the Detail thumbnails.
How do I not generate an Overview thumbnail page?
Use the -v, --overview option by specifying -v- or --overview-.
Why don’t any of my video files get processed when using the -d, --directory option?
Make sure that your video file extensions are in the list of valid extensions that follow the -d, --directory option shown using -?, --help. Add any missing extensions using the --exts and --save options.
Make sure the --minsize option is set correctly for your video file sizes.
The presence of files that look like *_overview.jpg, *_pageNNNN.jpg, or *_pageNNNN_NN_NN_NN.jpg in a directory will make the -d, --directory option think that thumbnails have already been generated for that directory and it will be skipped. Similarly, if the --subdir option is a non-empty string then the presence of a sub-directory with that name will indicate that the parent directory should be skipped.
Thumbnail an entire directory contains a detailed example of the use of the -d, --directory option.
Why do I see black bars on the sides of my thumbnails?
See the -p, --crop option to manually set the cropping aspect ratio. Remove the black bars from the edges of thumbnails contains a detailed example.
Why are my thumbnails squished/stretched?
See the -t, --stretch option to manually set the stretching aspect ratio. Fix distorted thumbnails contains a detailed example.
How do I change the location of the thumbnail timestamps?
See the -l, --label option to change the location of the timestamps from their default position in the lower-right corner.
How do I figure out the exact starting/ending thumbnailing times?
Unfortunately, most video players don’t seem to be able to jump to a particular time — and when they are able to do this, they aren’t able to do it while the video is paused.
Luckily, BS.Player works pretty well for this:
Pause the video.
Type Control+J to bring up the Jump to time dialog box or right-click on the video and choose Playback ‣ Jump to time from the popup menu.
Enter in the time you want to jump to and press the Enter key or click the Jump button.
Alternatively, you can use Microsoft Expression Encoder:
Import the video to view.
Change the position using the text box below the timeline.
Also, MPEG2 (aka .vob) files sometimes have problems when determining video times. First of all make sure that the video codec used to generate the thumbnails is the same as that used by your player. If in doubt just use Microsoft Expression Encoder to view your video.
Microsoft Expression Encoder doesn’t seem to be able to accurately determine video positions when importing multiple MPEG2s into a single timeline (by using the Insert a media item at the end of the timeline button which is underneath the right side of the timeline). However, it will accurately show times within a single MPEG2 so the workaround is to only add the final MPEG2/.vob and manually figure out the translation to/from single file time and total video time.
BS.Player has a similar problem and again the workaround is to just view the final MPEG2/.vob instead of trying to jump to an actual time in the video.
Why does it take so long to generate thumbnails?
CLAutoThumbnailer uses the Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 SP1 SDK to generate thumbnails and thus is dependent on its processing speed. In particular, the SDK can take some seconds to open the first video file.
The upside is that the SDK is typically more accurate at grabbing thumbnails at a particular time and can grab thumbnails more frequently (down to every fraction of a second if desired). Other thumbnail tools can have difficulty grabbing frames more often than once every 15 or so seconds.
Why isn’t there a nice fancy user interface for CLAutoThumbnailer?
CLAutoThumbnailer is a Command Line program. However, it’s been written to make it possible to bolt on a user interface at a later time since the command-line option processing is done separately from the actual thumbnail generation stuff. (Don’t hold your breathe though).
Why doesn’t CLAutoThumbnailer use my fancy NVIDIA GPU to speed up thumbnail generation?
The Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 SP1 SDK currently uses NVIDIA GPUs when encoding videos but not when decoding them.
Is CLAutoThumbnailer able to use multiple CPU cores?
No. If there ever is a GUI version of AutoThumbnailer then it will probably be able to use multiple cores. OTOH, you can open up multiple Command Prompt windows and run a separate instance of CLAutoThumbnailer in each one.