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abelthorne

Member

Registered: 2020-03-02

Posts: 10

Getting attachement thumbnails from Matroska (MKV) files with tumbler?

Hello,
I have Matroska (MVK) video files that have embedded/attached images as cover.jpg. I'd like tumbler to use these as the thumbnail instead of creating a regular one from the video.

I'm currently using Xubuntu 24.04 and this used to work on an older version but it has stopped working at some point and I'm not sure why.

Here is the video part my tumbler.rc:

[CoverThumbnailer]
Disabled=true
Priority=3
Locations=~/movies
MaxFileSize=0
#APIKey=your-api-key-from-themoviedb.org

# ffmpegthumbnailer plugin
[FfmpegThumbnailer]
Disabled=false
Priority=1
Locations=
MaxFileSize=0

# GStreamer plugin
[GstThumbnailer]
Disabled=false
Priority=2
Locations=
MaxFileSize=0

From what I've found doing a search, this should work using the GStreamer plugin, that's why I've put at priority 2. Yet, it doesn't work, I get a thumbnail generated from a frame of the video. Disabling both the Ffmpeg and the GStreamer thumbnailers still generates thumbnails (I delete the content of ~/.cache/thumbnails and ~/.thumbnails for the tests), so I'm not sure exactly what creates them.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,815

Re: Getting attachement thumbnails from Matroska (MKV) files with tumbler?

so I'm not sure exactly what creates them.

If you run tumblerd in debug mode, you'll see which thumbnailer is processing the video files.

However, to get covers, you should probably enable the cover thumbnailer. I don't have any video files with covers embedded to test this though.

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abelthorne

Member

Registered: 2020-03-02

Posts: 10

Re: Getting attachement thumbnails from Matroska (MKV) files with tumbler?

I'm a bit confused about running tumbler in debug mode: do I have to install something specific? When I simply run the command listed on the page, I get the following:

bash: /tumbler-1/tumblerd: Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce nom

(in english, "no such file or directory")
My tumbler version is 4.18.1-1.1build4. I'm not sure what the pkg-config part is supposed to return, running it by itself outputs nothing.

As for the cover thumbnailer, the thumbnail generation worked in the past without it and I don't really want to download the covers on the fly, I already have them in the files.

EDIT: ok, I figured it out, pkg-config is just supposed to find the path to tumbler-1. On my system, it seems to be the following:

G_MESSAGES_PREFIXED= G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd

So, if I run it, I get the following output when accessing a dir with a MKV file that has an embedded cover:

GLib-GIO-DEBUG: 00:16:22.117: Using cross-namespace EXTERNAL authentication (this will deadlock if server is GDBus < 2.73.3)
tumbler-ffmpeg-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.197: Initializing the Tumbler ffmpeg video thumbnailer plugin
tumbler-odf-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.197: Initializing the Tumbler ODF Thumbnailer plugin
tumbler-gepub-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.252: Initializing the Tumbler Gepub Thumbnailer plugin
tumbler-font-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.252: Initializing the Tumbler Font Thumbnailer plugin
tumbler-jpeg-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.252: Initializing the Tumbler JPEG Thumbnailer plugin
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.253: Initializing the Tumbler Desktop Thumbnailer plugin
tumbler-gst-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.253: Initializing the Tumbler GStreamer Thumbnailer plugin
tumbler-raw-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.253: Initializing the Tumbler RAW Thumbnailer plugin
tumbler-cover-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.254: Initializing the Tumbler Cover Thumbnailer plugin
tumbler-pixbuf-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.254: Initializing the Tumbler Pixbuf Thumbnailer plugin
tumbler-poppler-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.258: Initializing the Tumbler Poppler PDF/PS Thumbnailer plugin
tumbler-DEBUG: 00:16:22.258: Thumbnailer "CoverThumbnailer" disabled in config file
tumbler-cover-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.258: Shutting down the Tumbler Cover Thumbnailer plugin
GLib-GIO-DEBUG: 00:16:22.261: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation gvfs (GDaemonVfs) for ‘gio-vfs’
tumbler-poppler-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.261: Supported URI schemes:
  file
  admin
  davs+sd
  dav+sd
  ftpis
  mtp
  onedrive
  afc
  ftp
  burn
  afp
  google-drive
  davs
  dav
  smb
  dns-sd
  nfs
  gphoto2
  archive
  sftp
  ssh
  recent
  trash
  wsdd
  ftps
  resource
tumbler-poppler-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.261: Supported mime types:
  application/pdf
  application/postscript
tumbler-pixbuf-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.261: Supported URI schemes:
  file
  admin
  davs+sd
  dav+sd
  ftpis
  mtp
  onedrive
  afc
  ftp
  burn
  afp
  google-drive
  davs
  dav
  smb
  dns-sd
  nfs
  gphoto2
  archive
  sftp
  ssh
  recent
  trash
  wsdd
  ftps
  resource
tumbler-pixbuf-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.261: Supported mime types:
  image/x-win-bitmap
  image/x-bmp
  image/x-ico
  image/tiff
  image/png
  image/x-xpixmap
  image/icon
  image/x-MS-bmp
  image/x-xbitmap
  image/gif
  text/ico
  image/svg
  image/svg+xml-compressed
  image/qtif
  image/vnd.microsoft.icon
  image/x-portable-graymap
  image/x-icon
  image/x-icns
  image/x-portable-anymap
  text/xml-svg
  image/vnd.adobe.svg+xml
  image/x-tga
  image/x-portable-pixmap
  image/jpeg
  application/ico
  image/bmp
  application/x-navi-animation
  image/svg+xml
  image/ico
  image/x-portable-bitmap
  image/x-quicktime
  image/svg-xml
  image/x-wmf
tumbler-raw-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.262: Supported URI schemes:
  file
tumbler-raw-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.262: Supported mime types:
  image/x-adobe-dng
  image/x-canon-cr2
  image/x-canon-crw
  image/x-epson-erf
  image/x-nikon-nef
  image/x-nikon-nrw
  image/x-olympus-orf
  image/x-panasonic-raw
  image/x-panasonic-rw2
  image/x-pentax-pef
  image/x-sony-arw
  image/x-minolta-mrw
  image/x-fuji-raf
tumbler-gst-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.276: Supported URI schemes:
  file
  admin
  davs+sd
  dav+sd
  ftpis
  mtp
  onedrive
  afc
  ftp
  burn
  afp
  google-drive
  davs
  dav
  smb
  dns-sd
  nfs
  gphoto2
  archive
  sftp
  ssh
  recent
  trash
  wsdd
  ftps
  resource
tumbler-gst-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.276: Supported mime types:
  application/mxf
  application/ogg
  application/ram
  application/sdp
  application/smil
  application/smil+xml
  application/vnd.apple.mpegurl
  application/vnd.ms-wpl
  application/vnd.rn-realmedia
  application/x-extension-m4a
  application/x-extension-mp4
  application/x-flac
  application/x-flash-video
  application/x-matroska
  application/x-netshow-channel
  application/x-ogg
  application/x-quicktime-media-link
  application/x-quicktimeplayer
  application/x-shorten
  application/x-smil
  application/xspf+xml
  audio/3gpp
  audio/ac3
  audio/AMR
  audio/AMR-WB
  audio/basic
  audio/flac
  audio/midi
  audio/mp2
  audio/mp4
  audio/mpeg
  audio/mpegurl
  audio/ogg
  audio/prs.sid
  audio/vnd.rn-realaudio
  audio/x-aiff
  audio/x-ape
  audio/x-flac
  audio/x-gsm
  audio/x-it
  audio/x-m4a
  audio/x-matroska
  audio/x-mod
  audio/x-mp3
  audio/x-mpeg
  audio/x-mpegurl
  audio/x-ms-asf
  audio/x-ms-asx
  audio/x-ms-wax
  audio/x-ms-wma
  audio/x-musepack
  audio/x-pn-aiff
  audio/x-pn-au
  audio/x-pn-realaudio
  audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin
  audio/x-pn-wav
  audio/x-pn-windows-acm
  audio/x-realaudio
  audio/x-real-audio
  audio/x-s3m
  audio/x-sbc
  audio/x-scpls
  audio/x-speex
  audio/x-stm
  audio/x-tta
  audio/x-wav
  audio/x-wavpack
  audio/x-vorbis
  audio/x-vorbis+ogg
  audio/x-xm
  image/vnd.rn-realpix
  image/x-pict
  misc/ultravox
  text/google-video-pointer
  text/x-google-video-pointer
  video/3gp
  video/3gpp
  video/dv
  video/divx
  video/fli
  video/flv
  video/mp2t
  video/mp4
  video/mp4v-es
  video/mpeg
  video/msvideo
  video/ogg
  video/quicktime
  video/vivo
  video/vnd.divx
  video/vnd.mpegurl
  video/vnd.rn-realvideo
  video/vnd.vivo
  video/webm
  video/x-anim
  video/x-avi
  video/x-flc
  video/x-fli
  video/x-flic
  video/x-flv
  video/x-m4v
  video/x-matroska
  video/x-mpeg
  video/x-mpeg2
  video/x-ms-asf
  video/x-ms-asx
  video/x-msvideo
  video/x-ms-wm
  video/x-ms-wmv
  video/x-ms-wmx
  video/x-ms-wvx
  video/x-nsv
  video/x-ogm+ogg
  video/x-theora+ogg
  video/x-totem-stream
  x-content/video-dvd
  x-content/video-vcd
  x-content/video-svcd
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.277: Supported URI schemes:
  file
  admin
  davs+sd
  dav+sd
  ftpis
  mtp
  onedrive
  afc
  ftp
  burn
  afp
  google-drive
  davs
  dav
  smb
  dns-sd
  nfs
  gphoto2
  archive
  sftp
  ssh
  recent
  trash
  wsdd
  ftps
  resource
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.277: Registered thumbnailer '/home/terzag/.local/share/thumbnailers/folder.thumbnailer'
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.277: Supported mime types:
  inode/directory
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.277: Registered thumbnailer '/usr/share/thumbnailers/atril.thumbnailer'
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.277: Supported mime types:
  application/pdf
  application/x-bzpdf
  application/x-gzpdf
  application/x-xzpdf
  application/postscript
  application/x-bzpostscript
  application/x-gzpostscript
  image/x-eps
  image/x-bzeps
  image/x-gzeps
  application/x-dvi
  application/x-bzdvi
  application/x-gzdvi
  image/vnd.djvu
  image/vnd.djvu+multipage
  image/tiff
  application/x-cbr
  application/x-cbz
  application/x-cb7
  application/x-cbt
  application/vnd.comicbook+zip
  application/vnd-comicbook.rar
  image/*
  application/oxps
  application/vnd.ms-xpsdocument
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.278: Registered thumbnailer '/usr/share/thumbnailers/ffmpegthumbnailer.thumbnailer'
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.278: Supported mime types:
  video/jpeg
  video/mp4
  video/mpeg
  video/quicktime
  video/x-ms-asf
  video/x-ms-wm
  video/x-ms-wmv
  video/x-ms-asx
  video/x-ms-wmx
  video/x-ms-wvx
  video/x-msvideo
  video/x-flv
  video/x-matroska
  application/x-matroska
  application/mxf
  video/3gp
  video/3gpp
  video/dv
  video/divx
  video/fli
  video/flv
  video/mp2t
  video/mp4v-es
  video/msvideo
  video/ogg
  video/vivo
  video/vnd.avi
  video/vnd.divx
  video/vnd.mpegurl
  video/vnd.rn-realvideo
  application/vnd.rn-realmedia
  video/vnd.vivo
  video/webm
  video/x-anim
  video/x-avi
  video/x-flc
  video/x-fli
  video/x-flic
  video/x-m4v
  video/x-mpeg
  video/x-mpeg2
  video/x-nsv
  video/x-ogm+ogg
  video/x-theora+ogg
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.278: Registered thumbnailer '/usr/share/thumbnailers/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer.thumbnailer'
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.278: Supported mime types:
  image/png
  image/jpeg
  image/bmp
  image/x-bmp
  image/x-MS-bmp
  image/gif
  image/x-icon
  image/x-ico
  image/x-win-bitmap
  image/vnd.microsoft.icon
  application/ico
  image/ico
  image/icon
  text/ico
  application/x-navi-animation
  image/x-portable-anymap
  image/x-portable-bitmap
  image/x-portable-graymap
  image/x-portable-pixmap
  image/tiff
  image/x-xpixmap
  image/x-xbitmap
  image/x-tga
  image/x-icns
  image/x-quicktime
  image/qtif
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.278: Registered thumbnailer '/usr/share/thumbnailers/librsvg.thumbnailer'
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.278: Supported mime types:
  image/svg+xml
  image/svg+xml-compressed
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.278: Registered thumbnailer '/usr/share/thumbnailers/epub.thumbnailer'
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.278: Supported mime types:
  application/epub+zip
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.278: Registered thumbnailer '/usr/share/thumbnailers/gnome-font-viewer.thumbnailer'
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.278: Supported mime types:
  application/x-font-ttf
  application/x-font-pcf
  application/x-font-type1
  application/x-font-otf
  font/ttf
  font/otf
  font/woff
  font/collection
tumbler-jpeg-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.279: Supported URI schemes:
  file
  admin
  davs+sd
  dav+sd
  ftpis
  mtp
  onedrive
  afc
  ftp
  burn
  afp
  google-drive
  davs
  dav
  smb
  dns-sd
  nfs
  gphoto2
  archive
  sftp
  ssh
  recent
  trash
  wsdd
  ftps
  resource
tumbler-jpeg-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.279: Supported mime types:
  image/jpeg
tumbler-font-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.279: Supported URI schemes:
  file
  admin
  davs+sd
  dav+sd
  ftpis
  mtp
  onedrive
  afc
  ftp
  burn
  afp
  google-drive
  davs
  dav
  smb
  dns-sd
  nfs
  gphoto2
  archive
  sftp
  ssh
  recent
  trash
  wsdd
  ftps
  resource
tumbler-font-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.279: Supported mime types:
  application/x-font-otf
  application/x-font-pcf
  application/x-font-ttf
  application/x-font-type1
tumbler-gepub-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.280: Supported URI schemes:
  file
  admin
  davs+sd
  dav+sd
  ftpis
  mtp
  onedrive
  afc
  ftp
  burn
  afp
  google-drive
  davs
  dav
  smb
  dns-sd
  nfs
  gphoto2
  archive
  sftp
  ssh
  recent
  trash
  wsdd
  ftps
  resource
tumbler-gepub-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.280: Supported mime types:
  application/epub
  application/epub+zip
tumbler-odf-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.280: Supported URI schemes:
  file
  admin
  davs+sd
  dav+sd
  ftpis
  mtp
  onedrive
  afc
  ftp
  burn
  afp
  google-drive
  davs
  dav
  smb
  dns-sd
  nfs
  gphoto2
  archive
  sftp
  ssh
  recent
  trash
  wsdd
  ftps
  resource
tumbler-odf-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.280: Supported mime types:
  application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
  application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation
  application/vnd.ms-excel
  application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
  application/msword
  application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
  application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation-template
  application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation
  application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet-template
  application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet
  application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-template
  application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-master
  application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text
  application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics-template
  application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics
  application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.chart
  application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.image
  application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula
  application/vnd.sun.xml.impress.template
  application/vnd.sun.xml.impress.template
  application/vnd.sun.xml.impress
  application/vnd.sun.xml.calc.template
  application/vnd.sun.xml.calc
  application/vnd.sun.xml.writer.global
  application/vnd.sun.xml.writer.template
  application/vnd.sun.xml.writer
  application/vnd.sun.xml.draw.template
  application/vnd.sun.xml.draw
  application/vnd.sun.xml.math
  image/openraster
tumbler-ffmpeg-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.280: Supported URI schemes:
  file
  admin
  davs+sd
  dav+sd
  ftpis
  mtp
  onedrive
  afc
  ftp
  burn
  afp
  google-drive
  davs
  dav
  smb
  dns-sd
  nfs
  gphoto2
  archive
  sftp
  ssh
  recent
  trash
  wsdd
  ftps
  resource
tumbler-ffmpeg-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:22.280: Supported mime types:
  video/jpeg
  video/mp4
  video/mp2t
  video/mpeg
  video/quicktime
  video/x-ms-asf
  video/x-ms-wm
  video/x-ms-wmv
  video/x-msvideo
  video/x-flv
  application/x-flash-video
  application/vnd.rn-realmedia
  video/3gpp
  video/x-matroska
  video/ogg
  video/webm
tumbler-xdg-cache-DEBUG: 00:16:22.285: Initializing the Tumbler XDG cache plugin
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:22.309: Ready to handle requests

tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:28.896: Removing files from cache for deleted source files
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:28.896: URIs:
  file:///home/terzag/.cache/thumbnails/normal/a1125284004d7651525544a7a5af45f1.png
  file:///home/terzag/.cache/thumbnails/normal/42e92ea3e316ad9c093380e47813dbe9.png
  file:///home/terzag/.cache/thumbnails/normal
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.882: Handling request 1
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.882: URIs | Mime types:
  file:///media/terzag/DataVol1/Videos/Musique/Nine%20Inch%20Nails/Broken/Nine%20Inch%20Nails%20-%201993%20-%20Broken%20Movie.mkv | video/x-matroska
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.882: Starting job 1
tumbler-gst-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:30.882: Handling URI 'file:///media/terzag/DataVol1/Videos/Musique/Nine%20Inch%20Nails/Broken/Nine%20Inch%20Nails%20-%201993%20-%20Broken%20Movie.mkv'
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.883: Failed attempt for job 1, URI 'file:///media/terzag/DataVol1/Videos/Musique/Nine%20Inch%20Nails/Broken/Nine%20Inch%20Nails%20-%201993%20-%20Broken%20Movie.mkv': Code 2, message: Impossible de générer la miniature à partir du contenu du fichier
tumbler-ffmpeg-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:30.883: Handling URI 'file:///media/terzag/DataVol1/Videos/Musique/Nine%20Inch%20Nails/Broken/Nine%20Inch%20Nails%20-%201993%20-%20Broken%20Movie.mkv'
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.945: Handling request 2
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.945: URIs | Mime types:
  file:///home/terzag/.cache/thumbnails/normal | inode/directory
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.945: Starting job 2
tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:16:30.945: 'Exec=sh -c 'folder-thumbnailer "$@"' _ %s %i %o %u': Handling URI 'file:///home/terzag/.cache/thumbnails/normal'
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.952: Ready signal for job 1
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.953: URIs:
  file:///media/terzag/DataVol1/Videos/Musique/Nine%20Inch%20Nails/Broken/Nine%20Inch%20Nails%20-%201993%20-%20Broken%20Movie.mkv
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.953: Finishing job 1

tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.964: Error signal for job 2: Code 8, message: (domain gdk-pixbuf-error-quark, code 3) Format d’image non reconnu
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.964: URIs:
  file:///home/terzag/.cache/thumbnails/normal
tumblerd-DEBUG: 00:16:30.964: Finishing job 2

From what I seem to understand, gst-thumbnailer tries to generate the thumbnail but fails ("code 2: unable to generate a thumbnail from the file's content") and it then goes to ffmpeg-thumbnailer that creates one?

If I disable the FFMpeg thumbnailer in tumbler.rc, I get the following message:

tumbler-desktop-thumbnailer-DEBUG: 00:25:08.306: 'Exec=ffmpegthumbnailer -i %i -o %o -s %s -f': Handling URI 'file:///media/terzag/DataVol1/Videos/Musique/Nine%20Inch%20Nails/Broken/Nine%20Inch%20Nails%20-%201993%20-%20Broken%20Movie.mkv'

So in the end, it falls back to FFMpeg again but with a different generic thumbnailer?

Last edited by abelthorne (2025-03-30 22:27:03)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,815

Re: Getting attachement thumbnails from Matroska (MKV) files with tumbler?

Interesting.

First of all, see if this is related?

It looks like the desktop thumbnailer is picking up ffmpegthumbnailer even though its disabled. Perhaps a new bug report at the link above would help.

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Mark solved threads as [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find solutions.
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abelthorne

Member

Registered: 2020-03-02

Posts: 10

Re: Getting attachement thumbnails from Matroska (MKV) files with tumbler?

First things first: as I mentioned, when the dedicated FFMPeg thumbnailer is disabled, it seems that tumbler falls back to the desktop thumbnailer which, if I understand the doc correctly, is the one that uses the various thumbnailers in /usr/share/thumbnailers (or local equivalent). I have a ffmpegthumbnailer.thumbnailer there that contains the following:

[Thumbnailer Entry]
TryExec=ffmpegthumbnailer
Exec=ffmpegthumbnailer -i %i -o %o -s %s -f
MimeType=video/jpeg;video/mp4;video/mpeg;video/quicktime;video/x-ms-asf;video/x-ms-wm;video/x-ms-wmv;video/x-ms-asx;video/x-ms-wmx;video/x-ms-wvx;video/x-msvideo;video/x-flv;video/x-matroska;application/x-matroska;application/mxf;video/3gp;video/3gpp;video/dv;video/divx;video/fli;video/flv;video/mp2t;video/mp4v-es;video/msvideo;video/ogg;video/vivo;video/vnd.avi;video/vnd.divx;video/vnd.mpegurl;video/vnd.rn-realvideo;application/vnd.rn-realmedia;video/vnd.vivo;video/webm;video/x-anim;video/x-avi;video/x-flc;video/x-fli;video/x-flic;video/x-m4v;video/x-mpeg;video/x-mpeg2;video/x-nsv;video/x-ogm+ogg;video/x-theora+ogg

It seems to be installed by the ffmpegthumbnailer package. Not sure why I have it installed, maybe I did install it manually at some point when I noticed that I didn't get covers generated for MKV anymore (to check if it changed things) or it was preinstalled by Xubuntu. I don't see it as a dependency or recommended package for a few packages I checked (the tumbler ones and the xubuntu-desktop metapackage) so I guess it's not related to Xfce/tumbler and probably not installed by Xubuntu originally?

If I uninstall it and delete the thumbnails while having the dedicated thumbnailer disabled, I don't have a thumbnail generated at all. So that at least explains why I had that fallback.

Uninstalling it doesn't fix the original issue, though, I still don't have thumbnails generated from the cover.jpg embedded in MKV files.

Regarding the bug you linked, the test file with AAC produces a standard thumbnail (generated from one of the video's frames) while the Opus and Vorbis ones have no thumbnail created at all. No cover in any case... which seems normal as none of these files have actual images embedded in them (I've checked with MKVToolNix and VLC), the cover they show is just the video track. So, I'm a bit confused as to what the report is about, if it's thumbnail generation in general for MKV with specific audio formats or for embedded cover art (as attachments, which is what I use and trying to get a thumbnail from).

My MKV files mostly have AAC or AC3 for the audio tracks.

Last edited by abelthorne (Yesterday 07:52:53)

Tamaranch

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From: France

Registered: 2020-12-31

Posts: 358

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Re: Getting attachement thumbnails from Matroska (MKV) files with tumbler?

EDIT: ok, I figured it out, pkg-config is just supposed to find the path to tumbler-1.

It doesn't find it for you? i.e.

pkg-config --variable=libdir tumbler-1

returns nothing?

abelthorne

Member

Registered: 2020-03-02

Posts: 10

Re: Getting attachement thumbnails from Matroska (MKV) files with tumbler?

It doesn't find it for you? i.e.

pkg-config --variable=libdir tumbler-1

returns nothing?

Correct, no output at all. My assumption was that this is distro-specific and the command on the debug mode page works on Fedora or Arch or whatever but not Ubuntu, but given that you're surprised I assume that it's not normal?

Tamaranch

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From: France

Registered: 2020-12-31

Posts: 358

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Re: Getting attachement thumbnails from Matroska (MKV) files with tumbler?

Ah I understand, the pkg-config files are in the *-dev packages on ubuntu (and all debian based distros I guess). It's a pain...

Added later 25 min 52 s:
I modified the doc. Regarding the original problem here, I think the fact that it worked before and doesn't work now is due to a gstreamer update that broke this functionality. There's nothing in tumbler that directly retrieves thumbnails from video or audio files, it's the plugins that do it, via external APIs. And the behavior described above is the expected behavior, so I don't see a bug here.

Maybe you can try running gst-launch-1.0 as described in https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/gstreame … te_1973727, since apparently it works, and make a custom thumbnailer from that: https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/tumbler/avai … umbnailers

abelthorne

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Registered: 2020-03-02

Posts: 10

Re: Getting attachement thumbnails from Matroska (MKV) files with tumbler?

And the behavior described above is the expected behavior, so I don't see a bug here.

Well, I guess it depends if the functionality broke in GStreamer upstream, in which case it's not a tumbler bug, or if that's the GST thumbnailer provided by tumbler that broke (because the API for GStreamer changed or something), and if so I guess that's a tumbler bug? Not sure how to check at which point it fails in more details. Do you have more infos about a specific GStreamer update that broke this?

I'll take a look at gst-launch but a quick test with the command in the bug report you linked just extracts a frame from the video to generate a thumbnail, which is what the FFMpeg thumbnailer currently does by itself properly, except that it also works with the broken opus/vorbis files from the other bug report, so I guess that it mostly addresses that specific issue. It does not seem to extract the embedded cover.jpg to generate the thumbnail (which is what I'm trying to do).

Assuming that the functionality broke or was removed in GStreamer, I guess an option would be to make a custom thumbnailer using mkvextract. I'll see if I can make something work. EDIT: this might me more complicated than I thought as attachments can be of several types (not only images), so the script would have to find all of them, filter the ones that are images, check if there's one that fits the cover names and so on...

Last edited by abelthorne (Yesterday 10:44:30)

Tamaranch

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From: France

Registered: 2020-12-31

Posts: 358

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Re: Getting attachement thumbnails from Matroska (MKV) files with tumbler?

Well, I guess it depends if the functionality broke in GStreamer upstream, in which case it's not a tumbler bug, or if that's the GST thumbnailer provided by tumbler that broke (because the API for GStreamer changed or something), and if so I guess that's a tumbler bug?

This plugin has essentially not changed since xfce 4.16, and the gstreamer API doesn't change its behavior without a major version change, so it's very unlikely that the change comes from tumbler (or its plugins).

Not sure how to check at which point it fails in more details. Do you have more infos about a specific GStreamer update that broke this?

No, really none, sorry.

Assuming that the functionality broke or was removed in GStreamer, I guess an option would be to make a custom thumbnailer using mkvextract

I think a custom thumbnailer would be best in this case, indeed.