Video (MPG) Thumbnails in PSE6?

[jimarnold]

Importing JPG and MPG into Organizer only displays thumbnails for JPG files. Is there a thumbnail for video files?

[ATR]

Are you saying that you got no thumbnail for the mpg video or that you got a blank thumbnail? Did you get any error messages or warnings associated with this issue?

Could you supply the camera source or other descriptions for this mpg video?

I did not have an mpg video, so I went into Premiere Elements 4, created an MPEG-1 (with .mpg extension) from a wmv video that I had, and saved it to the internal hard drive. Then I went into Photoshop Elements 6 Organizer/File Menu/ to bring the .mpg into the Organizer. When I did, the thumbnail for the .mpg was there with opening scene of video represented in the thumbnail. It looked just like the thumbnail for the .wmv version.

If you brought the jpegs and .mpg all into the Organizer at one time with Get Photos, did you remember to highlight the .mpg as well as the jpegs?

Maybe more details will help to figure out what is going on in your case.

ATR

[jimarnold]

Sorry, I should have included more information. My error.

AVI Files seem to work fine.
MPG Files imported from my Sony HandyCam DCR SR220 Hard Disk Drive. There is an Thumbnail but it is a blank with a "film segment" small icon in the middle.

Not sure what you mean by highlighting the mpg as well as the jpegs.

Interesting......when I did a Get Photo from a file I get an error message, "The video file preview is not availablebecause the Apple Quick Time TM could not be initialized"....but it allows me to import the file into the Organizer. Might be a clue.

Thanks much for helping me out.....I'll look into this Apple Quick Time TM issue a bit.

V/R Jim Arnold

[jimarnold]

Just spoke with Adobe Customer support. Apparently, PSE 6 will show the first frame of MPG files as long as they are MPG - 4. My files are MPG - 2 and must be converted to MPG4 before they will display. It is a software limitation.

[ATR]

Thanks for the feedback. It is much appreciated.

ATR

[ATR]

Jim Arnold

I thought that it would be good to report back on some additional information on your Photoshop Elements 6 topic that got incorporated in a recent Elements Village/Premiere Elements Forum thread on Premiere Elements 7 and MPEG2.
First the Premiere Elements Forum thread is:
http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41156

You need to read Hummie’s posts and the replies to Hummie toward the end of the above link. BarbO provides a link for further explanation.http://muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=2294&p=19259&hilit=+thumbnail#p19119

ATR

[CRB]

I am having a similar problem - but some characteristics might shed more light on the solution.

I have 3 PCs (all Dells). 1 XP Desktop (6 yrs old) 1 XP laptop (2 yrs old) and a new Vista Home Premium desktop (new). I am in the process of transferring files from old desktop to new desktop.

On my old desktop AND my laptop, I have PSE6, which shows thumbnails from MPEG2 files generated by my Sony DCR-SR55 HDD Handycam (Sony seems to be a common thread here). And the videos play perfectly in both PSE6 and Windows Media Player 11.

Now, when I migrated PSE6 catalog and files to the new Vista PC, things changed. Suddenly, there were NO thumbnails for the MPEG2 files (there were for the avi files), and they played back in PSE6 in the wrong aspect ratio (4:3, not 16:9 as recorded). And they wouldn't play in Windows Media Player 11 at all. Looked like a Codec problem.

I compared the video codecs & MPEG filters available (via windows media player help/about) on all machines. The obvious missing elements were that both laptop and old desktop have a couple of decoders that the new Vista PC didn't have.The main ones being AverMedia MPEG Video Decoder (avmvdec.ax) and Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder for Dell (clvsd.ax).

The Aver Media decoder came with the install softwar for a DVB-T tuner box that I have. I installed that software on the new PC - the Aver Decoder appeared - and now the videos play in the right aspect ratio, and play in WMP. But still no thumbnails.

So I called Adobe.

They suggested a codec pack - Vista Codec Pack 5.1.6 from Softpedia. I installed that. Oops - no thumbnails and back to wrong aspect ratio and no play in WMP. But than I went into the settings application in the Codec pack, to the MPEG tab, and changed MPEG 2 playback "to use ffdshow (.ts)" - which fixed the aspect ratio and WMP problems (again) - but still no thumbnails.

So I went looking for Cyberlink. They provided the PowerDVD player (Dell OEM version) on my old laptop and desktop - which was the source of the Cyberlink Decoders. So I downloaded Power DVD 9 from CNET. Sure enough there are now some Cyberlink Codecs - including a clvsd.ax - but a later version (8.4.0.205) than on the old desktop (3.5.0.2409). And while the playback still works - there are still no thumbnails.

I have tried (at every stage) deleting an mpeg 2 file from the catalog and then re-adding. No change. I did also convert one of the files to MPEG4 (using Premiere Elements 4) - and now produces a thumbnail no problem.

So, there we are. I'm pretty sure that there is something in the older Cyberlink Decoder that enables MPEG2 thumbnails in PSE6 - but I've reached the end of the road in terms of finding anywhere to get it to install.

Since the file exists on my old PC - how would I go about taking it from there and installing / registering on the new one? Would that work across the XP / Vista divide?

Hope this is helpful (to someone). And if any experts out there have any great ideas for next steps, I'm all ears.

CRB