PM6 does not display video files (e.g. MP4, MOV)

[David Roth]

Under PM 5 I was able to display and work with video files. PM6 shows the file names in red and displays an error when renaming these files or trying to upload them using the Smugmug uploader. I saw this problem posted in March as I also did a week or so ago, but neither was responded to.

I am using build 2818 of PM6 under Windows 10. I am running PM5 on the same machine and it stills handles these files fine including opening them on an external editor/viewer. This has made PM6 unusable for me.

David Roth

[Kirk Baker]

David,

Please see this documentation: https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48000340654-use-gstreamer-to-view-video-thumbnails-and-previews-on-windows

-Kirk

[karlmz]

David,

Did you make it work following the instructions that Kirk gave a link to? After following the instructions, my video thumbnails still have red file names and are still grayed out.

Karl

[David Roth]

Yes. It did work. For some reason the software installed on my D drive, which is a standard hard disk as opposed to the C drive, which is SSD. The gstreamer directory does not show up in either Program Files directory. I moved the gstreamer directory to the C drive, changed the pointer in PM6 preferences and it still works. There appeared to be no setting for this in the installation process, which almost all other programs allow. A non-issue if you have no additional hard drives in your system.

However, there has been one side effect, but I do not know if it is from gstreamer or moving to build 2818. My contact sheets now take a very long time to open - 5 to 10 seconds.

[David Roth]

Kirk,

Please note the issue raised in the above post. PM 6 is now taking several seconds to open contact sheets, whereas before it was instantaneous. My copy of PM5 does not exhibit this behavior on the same directories. I am not sure whether this happened as a result of loading build 2818 or installing gstreamer.

Also, is there a way to set the default of the star and color filters to off (check box unchecked)? PM5 supported this.

Thanks,

Dave Roth

[Kirk Baker]

David,

Please note the issue raised in the above post. PM 6 is now taking several seconds to open contact sheets, whereas before it was instantaneous. My copy of PM5 does not exhibit this behavior on the same directories. I am not sure whether this happened as a result of loading build 2818 or installing gstreamer.

Does this occur for all contact sheets, or only those that contain video files?

Also, is there a way to set the default of the star and color filters to off (check box unchecked)? PM5 supported this.

Yes, and it works the same as it did in PM5.  Set the filters the way you want them to be by default.  Then right-click on each of them and choose "Set as default".

-Kirk

[Kirk Baker]

Karl,

Did you make it work following the instructions that Kirk gave a link to? After following the instructions, my video thumbnails still have red file names and are still grayed out.

Where is your gstreamer folder?  Did you choose that folder in the Files section of the Photo Mechanic Preferences dialog, specifically the "Location of GStreamer install" path?

-Kirk

[karlmz]

David,

Thank you for replying. I guess I haven't figured out how to make it work yet.

Just curious, how big is the gstreamer folder when installed? Knowing that, I can make sure I am using the right folder.

Karl

[David Roth]

Karl,

The directory is just under 400MB with several levels of sub-directories. It appears that all you need to do is point PM to the gstreamer directory and everything works OK. I even deinstalled the program in Windows 10 (D drive), but because I had copied it to the C drive and pointed PM there, it still works. I am even seeing video files that were not visible in PM5.

DR

[David Roth]

Kirk,

I did a little more poking around and it appears that the color class filters are affecting the load time. My default is to have only two colors visible. If I change it to all colors, the load time drops significantly. So it is has more to do with the 2nd issue that I brought up. I cannot set the check box to default to unchecked when I open the contact sheet so that filters are not initially applied. In PM5 I can right click and set the defaults (including the check box) when the checkbox is unchecked. In PM6 the right click menu only appears when the check box is checked.

Dave Roth

[Kirk Baker]

David,

You're right!  I'll fix that for the next build of PM6.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

-Kirk

[baergnat]

Just a heads up that the link above isn't functional.

I had trouble getting PM6 to give me a video thumbnail (Win 10) but it turned out that during an uninstall/reinstall I had to add a trailing slash to the end of the gstreamer directory (so it was written C:/gstreamer/ instead of C:/gstreamer ) and PM picked it up.

[Kirk Baker]

Thanks.  I have updated the link.

-Kirk

[jomocovi]

Hello I have the same problem of not being able to display thumbnail of MP4 in PM6. I have fallowed the same flow of baergnat but the file remains the same. A grey box and red characters. Would you kindly heop me?

[Kirk Baker]

Hello I have the same problem of not being able to display thumbnail of MP4 in PM6. I have fallowed the same flow of baergnat but the file remains the same. A grey box and red characters. Would you kindly heop me?

What OS are you running?

-Kirk