Feature Requests

[exterminador]

Hi,

 

I'm testing Daminion for managing my media collection (6000+ music videos, 190000 pictures, etc.)

So far, Daminion seems to be what I'm looking for, it has some excelent features I've not found in any other application but it lacks some I consider really important so I thought on sharing:

 

- Support for m2t file extension (m2ts is already supported but I cannot add files with m2t extension), I think those can be treated as an m2ts container as well.

- Error management when importing files (while importing 5000+ video files, if mediainfo crashes, Daminion will crash as well, having to restart the program and start importing again). It would be good to have a black list for bad files so it don't get passed to MediaInfo as we know it will crash.

- Field for Date Added, it is important for me to know when the file was added aside from knowing when the picture/video was taken/recorded

- Ability to choose what info to show on "Thumbnail Captions" (i.e. show People and Keywords instead of filename)

- Ability to store a list of video chapter positions on the database (i.e. 00:01:54, 00:04:47, etc.)

- Thumbnail chooser. I've read this is an upcoming feature and I would like to share some really valuable options I've been needing for a long time:

- Use of a "smart" slider to select a video frame for generating the thumbnail. The best control I've seen for this is the one VideoReDo uses (screenshot attached), it's a combination of two controls, one for moving across the video and another one (in blue square) for precission to choose the right frame

- Option to save thumbnail as jpeg (a field in the database to store the position/frame choosen would do the work as well, as it can later be an extract plug-in to use an external program to generate the same thumbnail)

- Import from ACDSee. I've been an ACDSee user for a while to manage picture collections, I would like to use one application for all my media and Daminion seems pretty good to do the job, so being able to import from ACDSee will make the transition easier.

 

As a wishlist, some features that would make me even happier:

Search for duplicates (i.e. items with same values on title, keywords and categories)

Rename files using metadata (i.e. Filename = People separated by ";" + " " + Keywords separated by ";")

 

 

And finally, would it be possible to import/use a catalog built on the client, on the server version? That would mean I can start building my database now :)

 

 

Thanks!

[Murat]

Exterminador, thanks for your suggestions and welcome to our community!

 

- Error management when importing files (while importing 5000+ video files, if mediainfo crashes, Daminion will crash as well, having to restart the program and start importing again). It would be good to have a black list for bad files so it don't get passed to MediaInfo as we know it will crash.

 

We'll check it. Could you please send us a few of those "problematic" video files? Below are the steps to locate them:

- Close the Daminion and locate this file: c:\program files\Daminion Software\Daminion\Config\Log4Net.xml

- Replace it bythis file.

- Launch Daminion again and import your video files to a newly created catalog.

- When the error is appears please send me this file (if you are on a Win7):

C:\Users\[user Name]\AppData\Roaming\Daminion Software\Daminion\1.0\Logs\log.txt

 

to support[ a t ] daminion[ d o t ]net

 

Ability to choose what info to show on "Thumbnail Captions" (i.e. show People and Keywords instead of filename)

It is available on the current Daminion version. Click on this button to customize the captions below the thumbnalis.

 

 

Option to save thumbnail as jpeg (a field in the database to store the position/frame choosen would do the work as well, as it can later be an extract plug-in to use an external program to generate the same thumbnail)

 

I am not quite understood why this feature is necessary in Daminion?

 

Import from ACDSee. I've been an ACDSee user for a while to manage picture collections, I would like to use one application for all my media and Daminion seems pretty good to do the job, so being able to import from ACDSee will make the transition easier.

 

It should be easy if ACDSee can properly embed image annotations to XMP or IPTC. Unfortnatelly I don't use ACDSee.

 

 

And finally, would it be possible to import/use a catalog built on the client, on the server version? That would mean I can start building my database now

 

It's not implemented yet, but it's in our feature plan.

[franky68]

It should be easy if ACDSee can properly embed image annotations to XMP or IPTC. Unfortnatelly I don't use ACDSee.

 

It does... but it uses some propritaery keys for this like "ACDSee:Description". This is one of the reasons why I already suggested custom mapping in a different post.

 

If you like I can shoot you a few ACDSee xml-files.

[Murat]

Yes, we can consider adding ACDSee fields to our mapping list.

[franky68]

Yes, we can consider adding ACDSee fields to our mapping list.

 

Custom mapping would be the most flexible solution - who knows what other popular DAMs use propritaery fields.

 

But yes, ACDSee mapping would be great. I suppose there are LOTS of users who got ACDSee in one of those sales for free or 7 USD, grew frustrated and are eager to switch ;)

 

I just sent a few example files.

 

Kind regards

Frank

[Murat]

Thanks for the samples. We'll add support for ACDSee specific fields (I don't know why some software vendors don't fit into standard XMP schemes? :rolleyes:

 

BTW, what ACDSee version do you use?

[franky68]

Thanks for the samples. We'll add support for ACDSee specific fields (I don't know why some software vendors don't fit into standard XMP schemes? :rolleyes:

 

If they would fit into standards people were free to use other software instead of theirs ;)

 

BTW, what ACDSee version do you use?

 

I am using ACDSee Image Manager 12. This is the most recent not Pro version and what I got for free. So its probably the most spread version too.

 

AFAIK the Pro version allows to export Metadata into standard XMP schemes too.

[Murat]

IPTC has a benefit here - it doesn't provide such scalability as XMP, and software vendors doesn't litter it. Probably vendors decided that XMP can be used as an advertizement tool.

 

It's funny that ACDsee decided to add a custom field to write the image title, when there are 4 metadata fields for this:

• XMP DC:Title
  
• IPTC Headline
  
• IPTC ObjectName
  
• EXIF XP Title
  

 

Anyway, ACDSee is a good (and fast) image viewer ;)

[Detective]

Hello Murat,

many ACDSee-Users want to change like me. Because ACDSee Support does not realy exist, no one knows, which direction the software development goes. ACDSee has no longer the main focus on DAM. Feature Requests from Users are in my opinion not welcome etc...

 

Here is a good chance for Daminion, because Daminin has a very good potential to eliminate the deficiencies of ACDSee.

 

I'm using ACDSee Pro 3, if you need help in issue ACDSee, let it me know.

[exterminador]

Thanks for your openness for suggestions :)

 

We'll check it. Could you please send us a few of those "problematic" video files? Below are the steps to locate them:

- Close the Daminion and locate this file: c:\program files\Daminion Software\Daminion\Config\Log4Net.xml

- Replace it bythis file.

- Launch Daminion again and import your video files to a newly created catalog.

- When the error is appears please send me this file (if you are on a Win7):

C:\Users\[user Name]\AppData\Roaming\Daminion Software\Daminion\1.0\Logs\log.txt

 

to support[ a t ] daminion[ d o t ]net

 

Just sent the files, added the dmc file in case it helps.

 

 

It is available on the current Daminion version. Click on this button to customize the captions below the thumbnalis.

Right, thanks! Found it after posting :P Works exactly as I was thinking :)

 

 

I am not quite understood why this feature is necessary in Daminion?

 

Let me share my scenario. To access my Music Video files I use Windows Media Center along with MediaBrowser. MediaBrowser can use a jpeg file stored with the same name as the video file (in the same folder) as thumbnail. It can also autogenerate thumbnails but what I've been wanting for a long time is to be able to choose the thumbnail I want to see and not just a random frame of the video. This is possible with some thumbnail extract apps, but it is a very manual process and I end up not having time to do it file to file... So, with Daminion managing my video collection, and with the thumbnail chooser feature, I only need some way to save the thumbnail as jpeg or (actually better) to store the frame number or position on the database, so I can write a script to generate the thumbnail with that info. As Daminion is not supposed to be a dedicated thumbnail extract application I would think saving the position (or frame number) somewhere in the database would be better. As you can see, I'm really interested in this feature (or any other option that allows me to achieve it) and it is one of the main causes I'm looking for a better cataloging system for my video collection, so please let me know if I made sense and if you think this is possible.

 

 

It should be easy if ACDSee can properly embed image annotations to XMP or IPTC. Unfortnatelly I don't use ACDSee.

 

It seems it does, but it's a feature I don't personally use, and actually, this brings up a new suggestion (or two, or three :)):

 

- Ability to choose not to import XMP or IPTC metadata while adding pictures to the database. With the database storing that information for pictures when I enter it, I don't care/want to have that info stored in the file.

 

- Option to not save metadata to files, as while saving it, the file modified date changes (I really don't like that as I use that date on Windows Explorer for sorting). This being my first conscern, but I think the option to choose whether to save metadata to the file or not would be good and it will speed things up as well :)

 

BTW, I use ACDSee Pro 3, let me know if I can help with files or something.

 

It's not implemented yet, but it's in our feature plan.

 

Great, thanks.

 

 

Thanks!

[Murat]

Just sent the files, added the dmc file in case it helps.

 

Could you please try to import the file you sent me to a newly created catalog?

I've imported it successfully on my side.

[exterminador]

Could you please try to import the file you sent me to a newly created catalog?

I've imported it successfully on my side.

 

Thanks Murat, I'm using the new build (0.8.5) to import my entire collection again (and to start building it in Daminion as it will be possible to migrate to the server version lately :)), I will report if it happens again

 

The problem is not actually not being able to import this specific file, that could happen for many reasons (bad file, codecs, network problems, etc.), the thing is Daminion should not crash when that happens.

 

I've used other applications that relay on MediaInfo to extract video data and I guess error management with it is not that simple as those applications also crashes when MediaInfo cannot handle a file. I've also seen one strategy to bypass this is the use of a "black list of files", whenever MediaInfo crashes it will add the file to the black list so it is not processed again automatically. I think a good approach for Daminion would be to create the file record in the database even if MediaInfo cannot read file info. That way user will be able to manually add metadata.

 

 

Thanks again