m3u file list support

[Dreamer]

Save file list (and slide show?) to m3u too and add support for m3u files / ability to open m3u files with video, audio and image files.

Also add 'Save as m3u' to menu (add selected images to dialog box with ability to add more images/folders - like in slide show)

Why m3u ? :

- universality
- everyone would be able to open images in m3u file, because 'old' windows media player can 'play' (open) it
- MV2 Player (best multimedia player), new windows media player and possibly few other players/programs can play or open images from m3u too
- xnview is not required to open m3u
- relative paths (works also if folder is moved or burned)
- m3u is the only universal album format that can contain video, audio and image files
- you can create more m3u albums if you burn cd, like Animals.m3u, Nature.m3u, People.m3u and All.m3u (with all images on cd)
- good also when you've got short video files from your digital camera (or cell phone) - both very popular now, not just images in album...

[xnview]

Save file list (and slide show?) to m3u too and add support for m3u files / ability to open m3u files with video, audio and image files.

Also add 'Save as m3u' to menu (add selected images to dialog box with ability to add more images/folders - like in slide show)

Why m3u ? :

- universality
- everyone would be able to open images in m3u file, because 'old' windows media player can 'play' (open) it
- MV2 Player (best multimedia player), new windows media player and possibly few other players/programs can play or open images from m3u too
- xnview is not required to open m3u
- relative paths (works also if folder is moved or burned)
- m3u is the only universal album format that can contain video, audio and image files
- you can create more m3u albums if you burn cd, like Animals.m3u, Nature.m3u, People.m3u and All.m3u (with all images on cd)
- good also when you've got short video files from your digital camera (or cell phone) - both very popular now, not just images in album...

.m3u is compatible with picture/movie? I believed that it was only audio files.
Perhaps a good idea.
So save files or slideshow in .m3u, open .m3u

[Dreamer]

.m3u is compatible with picture/movie? I believed that it was only audio files.
Perhaps a good idea.
So save files or slideshow in .m3u, open .m3u

Yes.

Try this: Add some images to playlist in winamp (you can add also video and audio files), save playlist to .m3u and open that m3u playlist in windows media player, it works! You can switch images with page up/down (like in xnview). There is one feature in old WMP called 'Preview' - it works like slide show. (You can find old WMP in Windows XP here: C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe)

XnView already supports video and audio files, so m3u support for all media files would not be too difficult, I guess...

[helmut]

Save file list (and slide show?) to m3u too and add support for m3u files / ability to open m3u files with video, audio and image files.

Think m3u is a nice thing and should be supported. The question is for which cases this format can be used. As a start, XnView could read the m3u lists and use them in slide show (similar to playlists).

Also add 'Save as m3u' to menu (add selected images to dialog box with ability to add more images/folders - like in slide show)

Not sure whether people really want to gather several files and save them as m3u. If people should do this, this should be well supported in the user interface of XnView. Perhaps when there is more universal players that support m3u it might become a really big thing.

For slide shows m3u might be good, but information needed for slideshow might be missing (e.g. timing, background music, transition effects, auto image size, ...)

Why m3u ? :

- universality
...

Not doubt that the usage and support of m3u is a good idea. But we should see how XnView can support this nicely - perhaps without the user even noticing. Categorizing images might be an application for m3u, not sure whether it is fast enough to read through lists.

Note:
I have the feeling that my post is a bit confusing, perhaps to much hot wine on the Xmas market.

[Dreamer]

Think m3u is a nice thing and should be supported. The question is for which cases this format can be used. As a start, XnView could read the m3u lists and use them in slide show (similar to playlists).

Yes, try new WMP, images are 'played' for 10 seconds, audio and video fully... You can even save audio, video and image files from playlist to m3u in new WMP!

Not sure whether people really want to gather several files and save them as m3u. If people should do this, this should be well supported in the user interface of XnView. Perhaps when there is more universal players that support m3u it might become a really big thing.

Yes, maybe as playlists with ability to move images from one playlist (m3u) to another, add, copy and delete files and more...

For slide shows m3u might be good, but information needed for slideshow might be missing (e.g. timing, background music, transition effects, auto image size, ...)

Yes, it's because of 'universality' but it could be some default options for m3u playlists (with ability to change), I even think it would be better, everyone could set options he likes. m3u would not be the best playlist format for images, but if you create m3u playlist (with audio/video/images) you can be sure that everyone will open it! (You can create 2 playlists also if you want - m3u and sld?...)

Another problem would be that m3u playlist opens (mostly) Winamp and Winamp doesn't support images. But you can open it (with the context menu) in the program you want (WMP, XnView...) and even it's probably possible to view images with some plugins. Also I sent request for images support in Winamp, so...

[german_beaver]

Hi! Dreamer, thank you very much for this great idea! I think this method of categorizing images with m3u files is very effective and easy to implement. But there is one big problem with m3u files. If you move or rename your images, m3u file doesn't know about it and keeps old file links. However implementing m3u support in XnView would be very nice. The greatest feauture of m3u is it's universality. There aren't any other categorizing methods with comparable universality. What does XnView team think about it?

[Dreamer]

If you move or rename your images, m3u file doesn't know about it and keeps old file links.

Maybe some support in xnview for synchronize m3u with a folder might solve this 'problem'...

If m3u contains images with the path "Pictures\Animals", xnview could search for all images (or all files) in the folder "Animals" and replace m3u

If there are more than one path, xnview could search for all images/files in all folders and replace m3u

If there will be 'synchronize m3u' feature in xnview, I suggest to add ability to choose 'synchronize images only/audio only/video only/all files'

[german_beaver]

If m3u contains images with the path "Pictures\Animals", xnview could search for all images (or all files) in the folder "Animals" and replace m3u

If there are more than one path, xnview could search for all images/files in all folders and replace m3u

If I understand you correctly, you mean that XnView could automatically search for files with the same name in case that some files were moved to other location? But there are some other problems here. First, m3u file contains only filenames and not filesizes or timestamps or other information about the file. It means, that if I rename an image it cannot be found by XnView anymore. Moreover it is possible that there are several pictures with the same name in various folders. For example, many digital cameras give names to images automatically while uploading them to computer, like "image0001", "image0002", "image0003". Digicams also create new folder for every month, e.g. folders "Jun 2004", "Jul 2004", "Aug 2004". So it is possible that I have several folders with "image0001", "image0002" and so forth. Files downloaded from Internet also often have same names. So it would be impossible for XnView to guess which file is the right one...

[Dreamer]

If m3u contains images with the path "Pictures\Animals", xnview could search for all images (or all files) in the folder "Animals" and replace m3u

If there are more than one path, xnview could search for all images/files in all folders and replace m3u

If I understand you correctly, you mean that XnView could automatically search for files with the same name in case that some files were moved to other location?...

No, XnView could automatically search for ALL files in each folder from an old m3u and create a brand new m3u (but save as old m3u - overwrite it)

There could be also an option 'Synchronize m3u':

'automatically' (if m3u is opened with xnview)
'manually' (with a toolbar button, hotkey, and the context menu)
'ask' (show dialog box with options Yes, No and Cancel)

[Dreamer]

Not sure whether people really want to gather several files and save them as m3u. If people should do this, this should be well supported in the user interface of XnView. Perhaps when there is more universal players that support m3u it might become a really big thing.

Yes, maybe as playlists with ability to move images from one playlist (m3u) to another, add, copy and delete files and more...

Or, m3u could be opened in browser like a folder (with subfolders maybe) and with ability to view and switch images (even in fullscreen), delete, move, rename and adding (pasting) new images...

What you think Pierre, about this idea and 'synchronize' feature idea too?

[xnview]

What you think Pierre, about this idea and 'synchronize' feature idea too?

M3U file support is a good idea, i think. 'Synchronize' perhaps too.
I'll try to add M3U file import/export support in next release.

[Dreamer]

M3U file support is a good idea, i think. 'Synchronize' perhaps too.
I'll try to add M3U file import/export support in next release.

Great! If m3u is opened with xnview, slide show could be started automatically (with option to disable maybe).

[AHCarter]

Save file list (and slide show?) to m3u too and add support for m3u files / ability to open m3u files with video, audio and image files.

Also add 'Save as m3u' to menu (add selected images to dialog box with ability to add more images/folders - like in slide show)

Why m3u ? :

- universality
- everyone would be able to open images in m3u file, because 'old' windows media player can 'play' (open) it
- MV2 Player (best multimedia player), new windows media player and possibly few other players/programs can play or open images from m3u too
- xnview is not required to open m3u
- relative paths (works also if folder is moved or burned)
- m3u is the only universal album format that can contain video, audio and image files
- you can create more m3u albums if you burn cd, like Animals.m3u, Nature.m3u, People.m3u and All.m3u (with all images on cd)
- good also when you've got short video files from your digital camera (or cell phone) - both very popular now, not just images in album...

While I love Xnview and like the ability to be able to do batch renames for any file type. I think that it needs to be graphic oriented and not play audio files, or perhaps have a new proggie: XnHear. I primarily have the Images filter set and as far as video clips and sounds, I have both boxes unchecked with respect to playing them. I use Winamp for my sound files and Media Player for video.

But that's just me. Diversification is good, too much diversification and you lose site of the goal through all the trees.

[Dreamer]

While I love Xnview and like the ability to be able to do batch renames for any file type. I think that it needs to be graphic oriented and not play audio files, or perhaps have a new proggie: XnHear. I primarily have the Images filter set and as far as video clips and sounds, I have both boxes unchecked with respect to playing them. I use Winamp for my sound files and Media Player for video.

But that's just me. Diversification is good, too much diversification and you lose site of the goal through all the trees.

I'm not sure if I know what you mean, but...

- you could still save images to sld files, not only to m3u
- you could open m3u with the context menu, with program you like (e.g. videos.m3u with WMP, music.m3u with winamp and images.m3u with xnview)

But the main reason why I want it is that if you'll save images to sld, you (or your friends, family - in other country maybe) can open it only with xnview, m3u could open everyone (with WMP).

You could burn xnview to CD with images, but everyone use his favourite program, it wouldn't be 'new' too long and also they must install it first...

Maybe it would be better if we had some universal playlist format for images (and videos) and one for all media files, but we have not

[AHCarter]

While I love Xnview and like the ability to be able to do batch renames for any file type. I think that it needs to be graphic oriented and not play audio files, or perhaps have a new proggie: XnHear. I primarily have the Images filter set and as far as video clips and sounds, I have both boxes unchecked with respect to playing them. I use Winamp for my sound files and Media Player for video.

But that's just me. Diversification is good, too much diversification and you lose site of the goal through all the trees.

I'm not sure if I know what you mean, but...

- you could still save images to sld files, not only to m3u
- you could open m3u with the context menu, with program you like (e.g. videos.m3u with WMP, music.m3u with winamp and images.m3u with xnview)

But the main reason why I want it is that if you'll save images to sld, you (or your friends, family - in other country maybe) can open it only with xnview, m3u could open everyone (with WMP).

You could burn xnview to CD with images, but everyone use his favourite program, it wouldn't be 'new' too long and also they must install it first...

Maybe it would be better if we had some universal playlist format for images (and videos) and one for all media files, but we have not

That goes with the assumption that everyone has a player that can support M3U.

Also, you can create Slideshows and place them on CD with an autostrt by including the manual install proggie on the CD:

From the help file:

"You have now gathered the images and created the slide show, there are two things left. The slide show should work on any PC, regardless of whether XnView is installed already or not. For this reason, on the CD you save a version of XnView which can be directly started from CD. If you have not already done so, download the ZIP archive of XnView from the web, the minimal version is sufficient. Unzip the ZIP-archive to the directory "temp_slideshow_dir". When unpacking the ZIP-archive, the sub-directory called "XnView" is created automatically during unzipping.
Finally the file "autorun.inf" must be created. Whenever inserting a CD, the system searches the CD for this file and if it exists, it executes the commands contained. The file "autorun.inf" is a text file, which you can create using "Notepad". Start the editor by selecting the windows menu StartProgramsAccessoriesNotepad. Notepad opens an empty text document. Enter the lines below:

[autorun]
open=.\xnview\xnview.exe -slide "Holidays Crete 2003.sld"

Save the text file as "autorun.inf" in the temporary directory previously created.
Now you have gathered all the files and you can burn all the files to a CD. In case it's your first image CD with XnView, we recommend to use a rewritable CD and then check the slide-show. Insert the CD into your PC and if everything went o.k., the slide show will start automatically."