How Can I Generate Thumbnails For Movie Files Options

[Clockface]

How can I generate thumbnails for the .avi/.mpg/etc files on my XBox's hard drive? I know that there's a way XBMC can look online for thumbs but my XBox isn't online, plus most of the files aren't films, but are TV episodes, youtube or music videos, etc, with filenames that I've often wrote myself so they probably wouldn't be recognised by someone else's database anyway.

How can I make XBMC scan the files and create a thumbnail image for each file, so that the image is displayed in the file selector?

Sorry if this is a common question, but I can't see the answer.

[Bomb Bloke]

The option exists in all versions of XBMC except the X-Box one, and as far as I know, thumbs from the other versions won't work on the X-Box either.

This would probably be the best way to do it (have your PC generate the thumbs for you), except the file's been deleted (probably due to inactivity, most free file hosts turf files that aren't being downloaded semi-often). I've PM'd the creator, so he may put it back up perhaps.

[Clockface]

[quote name='Bomb Bloke' date='Nov 26 2010, 01:58 AM' post='4758639']
The option exists in all versions of XBMC except the X-Box one, and as far as I know, thumbs from the other versions won't work on the X-Box either. [/quote]

Oh right. Well it explains why I couldn't find it, but why wouldn't the XBox version support it? Surely the XBox would be capable of it (I'm sure it would), and unlike, say, the PC or Mac, the XBox itself doesn't support multimedia software to do this sort of thing, so surely the XBox would be more likely, not less, to have this ability built in?

Is it possible for us to request this feature from whoever makes the XBox version?



This would probably be the best way to do it (have your PC generate the thumbs for you), except the file's been deleted (probably due to inactivity, most free file hosts turf files that aren't being downloaded semi-often). I've PM'd the creator, so he may put it back up perhaps.
[/quote]

Thanks, I'll try that link every few days, in case he re-uploads it. Does that program need the movie files to first be copied from the XBox's hard drive to the PC's hard drive?

If so, then I'd have to do some juggling, as at the moment I'm not too well supplied with PC hard drive space

[Bomb Bloke]

Oh right. Well it explains why I couldn't find it, but why wouldn't the XBox version support it? Surely the XBox would be capable of it (I'm sure it would), and unlike, say, the PC or Mac, the XBox itself doesn't support multimedia software to do this sort of thing, so surely the XBox would be more likely, not less, to have this ability built in?

Is it possible for us to request this feature from whoever makes the XBox version?

Technically, yeah, the console can do it.

At one point, the only XBMC X-Box dev (at the time), arnova, did implement thumbnail generation. Then he took it out again. He never added the code to the official branch, hence there was never a release by T3CH.

The reason he removed it was because it was apparently quite likely to crash if used while the console was in HD mode. He didn't want to put up with the extra people complaining.

Thanks, I'll try that link every few days, in case he re-uploads it. Does that program need the movie files to first be copied from the XBox's hard drive to the PC's hard drive?

If so, then I'd have to do some juggling, as at the moment I'm not too well supplied with PC hard drive space

In theory, you should be able to map your X-Box video partition as a network drive (in Windows Explorer, goto Tools then Map Network Drive). Once this is done, you should be able to aim the program at that.