ThumbGen Redux

[mike_carton]

Trailer?
Direct YouTube links will not work. The internal trailer scraper adds links using our trailer server.

That's a URL to a trailer (if one exists) hosted by IMDB. ThumbGen can retrieve and display it.

[mike_carton]

ThumbGen 1.5.0.1; nightly debug build, not a final release. http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=07084533764173138082

Retrieval of following from IMDB has been fixed. Should help with scraping TV shows as well.

Runtime
Original Title
Genre
Director
Cast
Company
Countries
Release Date
Trailer URL

[Satnaff]

I very much appreciate your knowledge sharing and the reboot of your TG Redux 

I understood fanart.jpg needs to be 1280 x 780, and I've created those in the past when mede8er didn't scrape (e.g. an obscure title / extra bonus material etc.), then 'scanned folder' to let it create the about.jpg with no problem - until now - given the unfortunate issue where we're now getting corrupted conversion jpg, so I'm trying hard to get my head around TG / templates etc., for my future additions and maybe to revisit my existing (though quite large) movie library's graphics.

I'm steadfastly choring through a plethora of forum information trying to learn everything thumbgen and look for fixes where I'm going wrong.  I'm running your reduxed version 1.5.0.1, and I replaced the default Template.xml (the one you created and shared elsewhere) but the resultant about.jpg is sized at 1920 x 1080 and when viewed in my player the resolution is too large, missing the top / bottom detail. I know I can always resize the image but I'm thinking surely TG will do that (I thought maybe that was what the Export Image options were for but I can't seem to set any option to work).  Any advice greatly appreciated.

[mike_carton]

1. There are a large number of templates available for TG on the internet; some individuals even collected and zipped many up into a "template megapack". If you search for that and download, you'd be able to pick one movie and quickly scroll through the templates, seeing how each template's output looks.

2. The dimensions of about.jpg do not have to be 1280x720. The Mede8er will resize any about.jpg to 1280x720 and send to the receiver/dispay device which will then convert it back to 1920x1080 (display's resolution) The actual dimensions can be anything so long as their proportion is 16x9. 1280x720, 1920x1080, 3840x2160 (4K) are all 16x9 and will scale. All my about.jpg are 1920x1080 and work just fine.

3. The top and bottom missing must be different issue. It is either because of overscan or a setting on the tv.
- what is the native tv resolution?
- how do jpgs of various resolutions show up (say, make copies of a 1920x1080 jpg, resize copies to different resoltions and rename them and check how they show through Mede8er)

Overscan setting is at the bottom of video settings; you might want to change it as the last resort if nothing else prevents the edges from being cut off.

4. I'd recommend working on one movie, making sure its files are generated to your satisfaction and then repeating that process for the entire library.

5. The output about.jpg size is part of the design of the template. Any template can be opened in ThumbGen Designer and modified. Alternately, one could pick a template that produces 1280x720 output. But, like I said above, there's no need to limit ourselves to 1280x720.

[Satnaff]

3. The top and bottom missing must be different issue. It is either because of overscan or a setting on the tv.
- what is the native tv resolution?

Thank you.  I feel a bit of an idiot.  I have a NAS with all my movies / TV series stored and they're streamed to either of two mede8ers, one in the lounge connected to a full HD and one elsewhere connected to a TV that is non HD.  I've lately only been checking things out from the latter (which I've just realised is not HD, but an older 'HD Ready' TV with a resolution of 1366 x 768) and hence the cropped image, but can see the full image as it should be displayed on my more recent 'Full HD' TV.

I guess we can't have it all; I know the ratio sizes are all relative, but I suppose I'll have to use a template that will generate it to (maximum) of 1280 x 720 so as it will fit on both screens?  Or I can simply resize the generated image.  Your revamped template (which I downloaded from your post as per thread  http://www.mede8erforum.com/index.php/topic,15432.msg110156.html) is very nice to look at - I like the skewed embedded folder icon on the left.  Is there a version for 1280 x 720 ?

I'll take your advice and research some more templates  I did try editing your template (Canvass height/width/fill) with XML Notepad but I could see that wasn't enough and I have more to learn.

[mike_carton]

1. I'd recommend downloading and using ThumbGen Designer for working with templates. It is a very visual way of laying out the elements and modifying them.

2. 1366x768 is also 16x9 (very, very close - only 0.375 pixels excess, vertically) so, there should be no cropping there either. Could be a TV setting that's preventing it from resizing/scaling.

[mike_carton]

If you need 1366x768, there are 2 ways:

1. This recently active thread has some easy-to-employ options: http://www.mede8erforum.com/index.php/topic,19400.0.html

2. You could use the overscan support built into ThumbGen. The Overscan Correction options can be used. That will add a black border that will be visible on larger resolutions.

For 1366x768
Left, Right: 277 (calculated as 1920-1366)/2
Top, Bottom: 156 (calculated as 1080-768)/2

[Satnaff]

I don't think it's a TV setting; it's HD ready, which I take to mean DVD players, media players, Sky, Virgin boxes etc. can upscale / downscale to the TV; my TV doesn't seem to have the capability to up/down-scale. I know the mede8er will play my hi-def movies to my lower resolution screen, but can't see any mede8er setting will downscale 1920 x 1080 jpg images.
I will check out the TG designer, thanks.

[jer1956]

Force SD and then Full HD out of any source and you will soon know what the TV can do. The player will not output non standard dimensions. It's either 1080 or 720.

[Satnaff]

I revisited my TV's menu options - an old(ish) Samsung - Picture settings included 'Just Scan' as opposed to 16x9 and has done the trick - I can now see the higher resolution jpgs in both that and my newer Sony full HD set
I'm making some progress tweaking some templates out there and getting to know a bit more more about the .xml structure, but can't locate TG Designer download link anywhere. Anyone?

[stof77]

I am trying v1.5.0, complete newbie here,

unfortunately as soon as clicking on process files/folder icon, I got the spinning wheel forever, (now I remember why I choose to quit Windows) ...   Any idea ?

PS : I'm running thumbgen through a VM (windows 7 32bits) inside a Mac

-------

Edit : ok running it as Administrator resolves the spinning wheels problem, but now it doesn't sees my network shared folders, (as my movies are on a NAS) which is mapped to letter "Z", that might be a problem because of the VM...?


Edit 2 : arff just tested with a very old (and noisy) windows PC, and from there, thumbgen can see the network drive, so this is a VM problem, I kind of knew it as it's not the first time I have some problem with network drives recognition or functionnality inside a VM environment, that's too bad for me cause I don't want to use that PC anymore...

[AndresVR]

Hi Mike,

thank you for update and new DL link, will try this realease.

Best regards,
Andres

[Lupissimo]

It seems that the imdb rating only extracts the digit in front of the decimal point. Instead of 5.8 it shows 5.0.

[lekash]

subscribing to this thread as well. my laptop got wiped out and i lost my copy of the thumbgen redux. The DL links here are all dead. Hoping mike can hook us up with an updated link for download. sent a PM as well for good measure

[Lupissimo]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mb8e2t6jlwtw2jo/ThumbGen%20v1.5.0.0.rar?dl=0

Hoping that mike_carton will fix the imdb rating issue one of these days