movie thumbnailer (mtn)
http://moviethumbnail.sourceforge.net/

mtn is developed by tuit (tuitfun); though most of its magic is actually done 
by FFmpeg libraries. For documents, please see in the doc directory and at
http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=201133 .





USAGE SIMPLE
============
- put video files with full path in _make_videofiles.txt
- run _make.bat
- enjoy thumbmails in folder Screenshots_XXX





USAGE
=====
detailed usage:
  mtn [options] file_or_dir1 [file_or_dir2] ... [file_or_dirn]
options: (and default values)
  -a aspect_ratio : override input file's display aspect ratio
  -b 0.80 : skip if % blank is higher; 0:skip all 1:skip really blank >1:off
  -B 0.0 : omit this seconds from the beginning
  -c 3 : # of column
  -C -1 : cut movie and thumbnails not more than the specified seconds; <=0:off
  -D 12 : edge detection; 0:off >0:on; higher detects more; try -D4 -D6 or -D8
  -E 0.0 : omit this seconds at the end
  -f tahomabd.ttf : font file; use absolute path if not in usual places
  -F RRGGBB:size[:font:RRGGBB:RRGGBB:size] : font format [time is optional]
     info_color:info_size[:time_font:time_color:time_shadow:time_size]
  -g 0 : gap between each shot
  -h 150 : minimum height of each shot; will reduce # of column to fit
  -i : info text off
  -I : save individual shots too
  -j 90 : jpeg quality
  -k RRGGBB : background color (in hex)
  -L info_location[:time_location] : location of text
     1=lower left, 2=lower right, 3=upper right, 4=upper left
  -n : run at normal priority
  -N info_suffix : save info text to a file with suffix
  -o _s.jpg : output suffix
  -O directory : save output files in the specified directory
  -p : pause before exiting; default on in win32
  -P : dont pause before exiting; override -p
  -r 0 : # of rows; >0:override -s
  -s 120 : time step between each shot
  -t : time stamp off
  -T text : add text above output image
  -v : verbose mode (debug)
  -w 1024 : width of output image; 0:column * movie width
  -W : dont overwrite existing files, i.e. update mode
  -z : always use seek mode
  -Z : always use non-seek mode -- slower but more accurate timing
examples:
  to save thumbnails to file infile_s.jpg with default options:
    mtn infile.avi
  to change time step to 65 seconds & change total width to 900:
    mtn -s 65 -w 900 infile.avi
  to step evenly to get 3 columns x 10 rows:
    mtn -c 3 -r 10 infile.avi
  to save output files to writeable directory:
    mtn -O writeable /read/only/dir/infile.avi
  to get 2 columns in original movie size:
    mtn -c 2 -w 0 infile.avi
  to skip uninteresting shots, try:
    mtn -D 4 infile.avi
mtn is a command-line program so its usage will mostly be done in a shell or command prompt. it has many options:





TODO
====
i dont know how to do most of the things here. if you can help, please do!! :)
http://moviethumbnail.sourceforge.net/

bugs:
=====
- seeking in some files doesn't give a key frame. this slows down mtn a lot.
- how to make text align right?
- pts calculation might be incorrect
- is byte seeking working correctly?
- guess duration when unknown; or when duration is unknown, we'll switch unit
  from seconds to bytes
- fix static string buffers
- fix potential buffer overflow in string handling

future plans:
=============
- edge detection doesn't work very well. need a new convolution kernel?
- use multiple threads
- make mtn work with dvds -- both real ones and image files
- make mtn work with blue-ray & hd-dvd
- GUI! wxWidgets?





CHANGELOG
=========
version 200808a
- release year and month is now used as the version number.
- fix aspect ratio bugs. mtn now should behave the same as vlc's snapshot.
- bug: the Video: lines in stderr no longer show input scaling info ( => WxH).
  scaling info is still shown in the final output image and the info text file.
  this cannot be fixed easily.
- add -a aspect_ratio option to override input file's display aspect ratio.
- add non-seek mode -- slower but more accurate timing.
  non-seek is good for small time step or small clips.
- seek or non-seek mode is auto selected and can be overridden by -z or -Z.
- fix possible extra space char after video size info of previous version.
- make shot size even. this should fix vertical dots when # of column is odd.
- output files modified since program start time will not be overwritten.
- the finding of new shots to evade blank & blur is improved.
  # of skipped shots should be reduced.
- negative time step (-s) is removed. it doesn't seem to be useful.
- previous versions reported # of decoded shots/s; changed to # of final shots/s
- default info_color, background color, and jpeg quality has been changed.

version 2.45 2008/06/28
- individual images saved (-I option) now have HH_MM_SS as a part of the suffix
  (requested by RACER LUPINE (racerlupine)).
- fix issues with flv files. it should work now. (bug reported by: dragonbook)
- prefer average bitrate calculated from file_size/duration
- remove [PAR DAR] from ffmpeg's avcodec_string. this might produce an 
  extra space char after video size information.
- skip non key packets when a key frame is difficult to find.
  this seems to help a lot for files with vorbis audio and files with
  "warning: first frame is no keyframe".
- win32 binary: gcc4 is used instead of gcc3

version 2.44 2007/12/05
- add -N option to save file info to a text file (requested by: azumi23)

version 2.43 2007/11/19
- add -W option for dont overwrite files
- fix a bug when a video cant get decoded if we dont decode the first frame, 
  particularly with mpeg1 files. bug reported by: swmaherl, jake_o
- a small change to edge detection
- skip non reference frames -- speed up for files which cant seek accurately

version 2.42 2007/11/15
- version number is bumped to 2.42. hope that'll sound better. hahahaha.
  also, i am running out of ideas so updates will be infrequent. helps, 
  comments, patches, or feature requests are welcomed. :)
- add -F option to format font color & size
- add -L option to change locations of text
- fix a bug finding a key frame
- fix a bug when parsing command line args
- cleanup some mess in the code
- a small change to edge detection

version 0.61 2007/09/06
- add unicode filename support in windows! console output doesn't work though.
  you might want to change the font if the default doesn't work.
- thai quick fix is removed because it's not needed anymore
- add edge detection (-D option)! doesn't work very well if movies have poor 
  quility or borders.
- ignore negative start_time; is this ok?
- change default minimum height to 150 (-h 150)
- small modification to blank screen detection
- there're a lot of changes. hopefully that won't introduce new bugs. :)

version 0.60 2007/08/22
- windows thai quick fix is only done in thai codepage (874)
- make -r override -s, so users dont need to use -s 0 anymore
- add more usage in windows
- fix -O option with trailing \ in windows
- convert all tabs in source code to spaces
- use -mms-bitfields -mcpu=pentium -march=i386 gcc options in windows 
  according to http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/compile.html

version 0.59 2007/08/18
- quick fix for displaying thai filenames in the output image in windows;
  need to handle unicode in windows to do this properly
- add more checks & warnings
- in windows, change the default to pause before exiting
- add -P option for dont pause; override -p

version 0.58 2007/08/17
- guessing duration when unknown should work with dvd's .vob files
- timestamping is turned off when we need to guess duration
- add -I option for saving individual shots to separate files
- add .nut, .ogg to default search

version 0.57 2007/08/08
- fix program crash when couln't find codec
- add a few more checks for really short movies

version 0.56 2007/08/07
- fix timestamp when start_time > 0 to match other programs
- fix a small memory leak -- there seem to be more leaks, maybe in ffmpeg
- add seeking by byte
- try harder to evade blank screens
- always order info : Audio, Video, Subtitles

version 0.55 2007/08/03
- remove -d option for decoding # frames after seeking

version 0.54 2007/08/03
- decode until we get a key frame!

version 0.53 20070802
- add more checks for command line arguments
- create output file before processing
- create output directory if not exist

version 0.52 20070801
- add -O option
- fix start_time handling for DVD's .vob files

version 0.51 20070731
- add -p option

version 0.50 20070731
- first beta release