Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
As inspired by this post:
The author discovered a use for a quirk of flatview (which I reported as a bug a couple of years ago).
The flatview package creates a virtual view of the My Video file system (with some user configurable parameters), such that recordings which may be dispersed into sub-directories within My Video (mainly series folders) can also be accessed from one single [Flatview] virtual folder. This is done by creating and updating shortcuts to the actual recording files.
However, the Humax firmware doesn't understand that these are virtual views of the same recordings, so separate thumbnails get created (under the right circumstances) - that's the bug I was talking about, that the flatview package does not compensate for this.
Jerome K uses this quirk to set custom thumbnails without using the thumbnail package (WebIF >> Browse Media Files >> [select recording] >> Opt+ >> Set Thumbnail) and therefore without requiring a recording to have been decrypted.
Thumbnails are created (as standard) when a recording is played for the first time, or during the shutdown housekeeping (whichever happens first). Provided no thumbnail is already set, the thumbnail is the first video frame on playback. If the flatview version of the recording is played, only the flatview version gets a thumbnail but the playback can then be stopped at a point where the desired thumbnail frame is. The resume point is nonetheless available to the non-flatview version of the recording (via the .hmt sidecar file), so resuming the non-flatview recording creates a thumbnail of the video frame at the resume point. As noted, this works regardless of whether the recording has been decrypted. It also works the other way around (flatview / non-flatview).
I've not tested it, but in summary:
The author discovered a use for a quirk of flatview (which I reported as a bug a couple of years ago).
The flatview package creates a virtual view of the My Video file system (with some user configurable parameters), such that recordings which may be dispersed into sub-directories within My Video (mainly series folders) can also be accessed from one single [Flatview] virtual folder. This is done by creating and updating shortcuts to the actual recording files.
However, the Humax firmware doesn't understand that these are virtual views of the same recordings, so separate thumbnails get created (under the right circumstances) - that's the bug I was talking about, that the flatview package does not compensate for this.
Jerome K uses this quirk to set custom thumbnails without using the thumbnail package (WebIF >> Browse Media Files >> [select recording] >> Opt+ >> Set Thumbnail) and therefore without requiring a recording to have been decrypted.
Thumbnails are created (as standard) when a recording is played for the first time, or during the shutdown housekeeping (whichever happens first). Provided no thumbnail is already set, the thumbnail is the first video frame on playback. If the flatview version of the recording is played, only the flatview version gets a thumbnail but the playback can then be stopped at a point where the desired thumbnail frame is. The resume point is nonetheless available to the non-flatview version of the recording (via the .hmt sidecar file), so resuming the non-flatview recording creates a thumbnail of the video frame at the resume point. As noted, this works regardless of whether the recording has been decrypted. It also works the other way around (flatview / non-flatview).
I've not tested it, but in summary:
- Do not play the recording you want to set a thumbnail for, nor allow the machine to shut down.
- To set a custom thumbnail for a recording in My Media (not [Flatview]), find the [Flatview] version and play it. Find the point at which you want that frame to be the thumbnail, and stop playback.
- Return to the My Media version of the recording and select "resume". This sets the thumbnail as preset in step 2.