A
Adam Albright
More proof the routines that handles videos in Vista SUCK big time.
Specifics:
File only 216 MB in size, MPEG-2 format. Has both a video and audio
stream. Now watch Vista mess up.
This is a file that Vista should easily be able to open and make a
thumbnail from. Should be no problem since I have multiple MPEG-2
decoders (codecs) and Vista does show a thumbnail for most files I
have in this file type, but not this one.
It can't be the file size, this is a small file. It can't be the file
type for the reasons I just explained. Well, lets open the file in a
PROFESSIONAL GRADE video editor, called Vegas by Sony.
Hmm... nothing wrong with the first frame of this video, it isn't
totally black or overly bright or too dark, things that may trip up
the thumbnailer in Vista, in fact looking at the waveform, histogram
and vectorscope profiles of this file in Vegas it hardly needs any
correction at all, so why can't Vista create a thumbnail from it?
Will XnView make a thumbnail? Lets see. Sure it did. Hmm...
Well, can Media Player play this file? Yes it does, perfectly, both
video and audio steams, no burps, no stalling everything seems in
sync, opens in less then 2 seconds and plays all the way through. I
checked the file in several utilites that look for file corruption,
none found.
This is a paradox. We've learned if you read some other threads on
this topic as well as some linked web sites that Vista uses some of
the same hooks to internal routines to make thumbnails as it does to
play videos, which I guess makes sense.
So how is it that Vista refuses to make a thumbnail from a file that
has no corruption, has a normal first frame and all the following are
fine too and plays perfectly in Media Player? It simply makes no
sense.
Lets play with it. I rendered the first 60 seconds in Vegas and
transcoded to WMV. Now what? Oh, Vista likes that, it now makes a
thumbnail of this 60 second wmv file. What happens if I make a 60
second vid in Vegas but make it in it's native MPEG-2 format? We're
back to same problem. Vista refues to make a thumbnail of this MPEG-2
file regardless of size, let it plays it fine in Media Player. Just to
be sure, I made a tiny one of only 10 seconds and same problem, won't
make a thumbnail.
What can we infer from this?
It seems Vista don't like some MPEG-2 files when trying to make
thumbnails but will still play them fine. Of course I've seen the
reverse where it makes thumbnails but can't play the video in Media
Player. What's going on? I wish I knew. Drives you crazy. So we are
back to the old problem of Vista having all kinds of trouble with
CODECS apparently. It simply is too dumb to either access or see the
right CODECS on the system in the location they are suppose to be that
other players like XnView CAN access and use without problems. Typical
Microsoft buggy software is the real answer. Nothing to do with third
party applications we've just blew that theory out of the water.
Specifics:
File only 216 MB in size, MPEG-2 format. Has both a video and audio
stream. Now watch Vista mess up.
This is a file that Vista should easily be able to open and make a
thumbnail from. Should be no problem since I have multiple MPEG-2
decoders (codecs) and Vista does show a thumbnail for most files I
have in this file type, but not this one.
It can't be the file size, this is a small file. It can't be the file
type for the reasons I just explained. Well, lets open the file in a
PROFESSIONAL GRADE video editor, called Vegas by Sony.
Hmm... nothing wrong with the first frame of this video, it isn't
totally black or overly bright or too dark, things that may trip up
the thumbnailer in Vista, in fact looking at the waveform, histogram
and vectorscope profiles of this file in Vegas it hardly needs any
correction at all, so why can't Vista create a thumbnail from it?
Will XnView make a thumbnail? Lets see. Sure it did. Hmm...
Well, can Media Player play this file? Yes it does, perfectly, both
video and audio steams, no burps, no stalling everything seems in
sync, opens in less then 2 seconds and plays all the way through. I
checked the file in several utilites that look for file corruption,
none found.
This is a paradox. We've learned if you read some other threads on
this topic as well as some linked web sites that Vista uses some of
the same hooks to internal routines to make thumbnails as it does to
play videos, which I guess makes sense.
So how is it that Vista refuses to make a thumbnail from a file that
has no corruption, has a normal first frame and all the following are
fine too and plays perfectly in Media Player? It simply makes no
sense.
Lets play with it. I rendered the first 60 seconds in Vegas and
transcoded to WMV. Now what? Oh, Vista likes that, it now makes a
thumbnail of this 60 second wmv file. What happens if I make a 60
second vid in Vegas but make it in it's native MPEG-2 format? We're
back to same problem. Vista refues to make a thumbnail of this MPEG-2
file regardless of size, let it plays it fine in Media Player. Just to
be sure, I made a tiny one of only 10 seconds and same problem, won't
make a thumbnail.
What can we infer from this?
It seems Vista don't like some MPEG-2 files when trying to make
thumbnails but will still play them fine. Of course I've seen the
reverse where it makes thumbnails but can't play the video in Media
Player. What's going on? I wish I knew. Drives you crazy. So we are
back to the old problem of Vista having all kinds of trouble with
CODECS apparently. It simply is too dumb to either access or see the
right CODECS on the system in the location they are suppose to be that
other players like XnView CAN access and use without problems. Typical
Microsoft buggy software is the real answer. Nothing to do with third
party applications we've just blew that theory out of the water.