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Description

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Rating
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Media Preview

NEW VERSION 1.4.3

NO LONGER DEVELOPED
Media Preview shows thumbnails for all your video files in Windows Explorer. Media Preview is powered by ffmpeg.

Freeware
OS: Win
File size: 15MB
Old versions
Version history
8.3/10
11 votes
Rate it




Screenshots

Media Preview screenshot
Latest version

1.4.3 (April 13, 2014)



Download


Visit developer's site

Download Media Preview 1.4.3  15MB  Win




Download old versions


Download Media Preview old versions



Software License

Freeware (Free download and usage!)



Supported operating systems

WinWindows




Version history / Release notes / Changelog / What's New


Media Preview v1.4.3.429 (04/13/2014)

Mini-me release:

Core
Better handling of camcorder recorded video files by getting actual thumbnails instead of grey images
Installer
Do not reset settings upon upgrading anymore (it won't work if you upgrade from 1.4.2 to 1.4.3 as uninstall is still handle by 1.4.2, but it will work when upgrading from 1.4.3)
Overall size reduced by nearly 10% (16.1MB to 14.7MB)

View full changelog




All features


Features

Since the advent of Windows XP in 2001, Windows Explorer has improved its usability by running a preview control system that let you get a glimpse at the content of your files while browsing and without having to open them. For media files, this is done by generating thumbnails replacing default icons.

But the default video thumbnail extractor of Microsoft generally does a lousy job at getting useful previews of your media files, mostly due to performance considerations. Nevertheless, computers have become powerful enough not to let the matter rest, and Media Preview can help them to provide you the best.

Supports The Key Media Formats

By default, Windows only supports the media file formats developped by Microsoft or for Quicktime, and ignores other popular media formats. Third-party media players fill the gap in terms of playback but usually let the preview functionality on the side-road.

Media Preview is here to bring to your computer the full preview capabilities for all of your media files.


Redefines The Uniqueness Of Your Media Files

While browsing TV series folders, you probably already got sets of identical thumbnails, where the default thumbnail extractor get stuck with the same title sequence.

Media Preview get over this by seeking another sequence of your media files to let you get more information out of them.


Works Everywhere

Windows comes in 2 different flavors, 32-bit and 64-bit versions, the later not being entirely backward compatible. And one of the main problems with third-party thumbnail extractors is that most only work on the 32-bit version.

Media Preview caters to every versions of Windows so that you won't feel cheated even if you opted for the more performing 64-bit version. Obviously, it also works seamlessly with your local and remote media files.


Avoids The Monochrome Symptom

The default video thumbnail extractor usually grabs the first frame of your media files, possibly leading to only display a collection of black thumbnails.

Media Preview is smart enough to detect image relevance using related metrics. If the extracted image is part of a shot transition, Media Preview will go seek the following scene to get a meaningful thumbnail.


Gets You Free Of System Constraints

While browsing, you probably encountered some issues like not being able to rename or move a file anymore, because the thumbnail extractor was still running in the background.

Media Preview won't ever remind you of its presence as you'll be able to do what you want with your files.


Designed For System Stability And Performance

Third-party thumbnail extractors use directly the video rendering pipelines of your system and so impose upon you the media solution it's tied to, sometimes invoking a full-blown framework to do the job.

Media Preview remains out of the regular rendering pipeline, lets your delicate playback setup stable and out of harm, doesn't clutter your system with more than needed, but still performs efficiently.




Sections/Browse similar tools






Alternative to Media Preview


Icaros







Guides and How to's




Acronyms / Also Known As

BabelSoft Media Preview, MediaPreview




Notify me when software updated or report software

Email me when it has been updated    Report this software (dead link/new version)  




11 reviews, Showing 1 to 5 reviews


Absolutely Great.

Review by Eugene on Sep 23, 2024 Version: 1.4.3 OS: Windows 11 Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Causes explorer to freeze on the drive hosting some videos (mostly mkv's from youtube), whether in thumbnail view or not (even freezes the command prompt). Not just the folder containing the problematic video, but all folders on that drive. Uninstall Media Preview and the freeze issue instantly vanishes. Occurs with multiple versions of windows, including Win10. Explorer usually (but not always) eventually unfreezes, but it can take 1/2 hour or more & immediately freezes again when you do an operation on any file in that folder or hit refresh. Happens when opening a folder with a problematic video, renaming, deleting or trying to play said video. Basically any explorer operation. Even rebooting in safe mode gives the same result. With Media Preview uninstalled (no need to reboot), all works fine.
Most likely because dev ceased years ago Media preview freezes &/or crashes with some of the newer codecs. Icaros does the same job & is still in development, so may not have the same issue.
Conclusion - in its time a wonderfully useful piece of software, but is now alas dangerously obsolete.


Review by Brave new World on Jun 21, 2020 Version: 1.4.3 OS: Windows 7 64-bit Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 1/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 2/10




Rating by grmi on Nov 11, 2019 Version: 1.4.3 OS: Windows 10 Ease of use: 4/10 Functionality: 2/10 Value for money: 4/10 Overall: 2/10




After the latest Windows update you can no longer use this programme to stop thumbnailing of video files whilst leaving thumbnails of photos. It's all or nothing now.

Review by naszdom on Jul 30, 2019 Version: 1.4.3.429 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 6/10 Functionality: 1/10 Value for money: 6/10 Overall: 1/10




Rating by Anon on Aug 20, 2018 Version: 1.4.3 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10


11 reviews, Showing 1 to 5 reviews

1 tool hits, Showing 1 to 1 tools
   



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