Arch Linux

jidders

Member

Registered: 2008-10-11

Posts: 10

Xfce4 and Thunar: video thumbnails won't show up

The thumbnail previews for all of my pictures and everything else display properly in Thunar, but for video files i always get the default video icon.

I've already tried deleting ~/.thumbnails and refreshing to no avail.
ffmpegthumbnailer and thunar-thumbnailers are both installed and up to date.
I use both mplayer and vlc which play all my videos just fine.
Video thumbnails were working great a few weeks ago but i just noticed this problem recently so i can't recall what i may have done to mess it up.

Anybody have any idea what might be causing this problem? I'm new to arch but i'll try my best to provide any info you need. Thanks in advance.

xaiviax

Member

From: Michigan

Registered: 2008-11-04

Posts: 282

Re: Xfce4 and Thunar: video thumbnails won't show up

ffmpegthumbnailer needs to be rebuilt (compiled with your current ffmpeg on your system).  Use abs or yaourt -Sb ffmpegthumbnailer.

mmmasterluke

Member

Registered: 2007-12-07

Posts: 49

Re: Xfce4 and Thunar: video thumbnails won't show up

I have the same problem. After recompiling ffmpegthumbnailer 1.3, some of my video files in Thunar are displayed as thumbnails but most aren't. There's no indication that it's a file type or codec problem.

Running the thumbnailer from the command line never works. I always get "Error: basic_string::substr".

edit:
Tried 1.4. Command line sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't. It's extremely picky about file names.

Last edited by mmmasterluke (2009-02-01 21:59:43)

sokuban

Member

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 412

Re: Xfce4 and Thunar: video thumbnails won't show up

Same problem. Recompiled 1.3 with abs; the problem seems to persist.

jidders

Member

Registered: 2008-10-11

Posts: 10

Re: Xfce4 and Thunar: video thumbnails won't show up

ffmpegthumbnailer needs to be rebuilt (compiled with your current ffmpeg on your system).  Use abs or yaourt -Sb ffmpegthumbnailer.

Thank you so much, most of my thumbnails are showing up now after i rebuilt ffmpegthumbnailer with yaourt.
My problem is solved now because the videos i needed thumbnail previews for are working, but there is something else that i thought i'd point out.

Most directories display thumbnails but some don't for some reason. However, if i rename a directory that doesn't display thumbnails to something different, all the thumbnails load fine. I just renamed my "Video" folder (which wasn't displaying thumbnails) to "Videos", and all the thumbnails loaded.

sokuban

Member

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 412

Re: Xfce4 and Thunar: video thumbnails won't show up

ffmpegthumbnailer needs to be rebuilt (compiled with your current ffmpeg on your system).  Use abs or yaourt -Sb ffmpegthumbnailer.

Thank you so much, most of my thumbnails are showing up now after i rebuilt ffmpegthumbnailer with yaourt.
My problem is solved now because the videos i needed thumbnail previews for are working, but there is something else that i thought i'd point out.

Most directories display thumbnails but some don't for some reason. However, if i rename a directory that doesn't display thumbnails to something different, all the thumbnails load fine. I just renamed my "Video" folder (which wasn't displaying thumbnails) to "Videos", and all the thumbnails loaded.

Same behaviour. If I rename a folder to its old name, thumbnails that show with the new name no longer show.

Deleted ~/.thumbnails and everything shows.

thunderogg

Member

From: Rio de Janeiro

Registered: 2008-07-13

Posts: 172

Re: Xfce4 and Thunar: video thumbnails won't show up

Remove the "~/.thumbnails" folder
then run: "/usr/lib/xfce4/thunar-vfs-update-thumbnailers-cache-1" as a normal user.

That's what worked for me. Hope it works for you!

Ops! Sorry sokuban, didn't see that you already had fixed it.

Last edited by thunderogg (2009-02-02 17:59:50)

mmmasterluke

Member

Registered: 2007-12-07

Posts: 49

Re: Xfce4 and Thunar: video thumbnails won't show up

Remove the "~/.thumbnails" folder
then run: "/usr/lib/xfce4/thunar-vfs-update-thumbnailers-cache-1" as a normal user.

Ah, now we're cooking with gas!

I'm wondering, though, how to change the command that Thunar runs to create the thumbnails. I'm not sure I like this movie strip overlay.