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_nmk · Nov 29, 2003, 01:08 PM

Hi all,

Is there a way to turn off the previews in the finder for a specific file type?

Why, you might ask. Well Quicktime tries to preview all avi files, even those it cannot read (DVD rips with strange codecs). It always grinds away for a dozen seconds before giving up. I would like to avoid this and still get previews for the other file types.

Many thanks in advance,
_nmk

Uncle Skeleton · Nov 29, 2003, 01:54 PM

if you install the codec from divx.com it will make most of those avi's preview faster.

if you use Divx Doctor to turn all your avi's into mov's, it will make all your finder previews faster (not quite fast enough, but 2 seconds is better than 10)

hotani · Oct 17, 2004, 07:23 PM

this thread is about a year old, but I'm running into this and would like to have a solution. I do not want to turn my .avi files into .movs just so QT can play them. VCL does a fine job and I'm all about skipping unnecessary steps.

I have seen my machine skip the preview before and just show an icon - this would be great, but it only does it for some of the files. Others it tries to preview, and once it starts down that road its a few minutes before i have my system back. Turning off preview would be ideal.

Uncle Skeleton · Oct 17, 2004, 08:09 PM

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
if you install the codec from divx.com it will make most of those avi's preview faster.

hotani · 09:46 AM

I have the codec installed. I want to disable preview for those files, period. Yes I read your other post, please don't quote it again.

Uncle Skeleton · Oct 18, 2004, 10:21 AM

Originally posted by hotani:
Yes I read your other post, please don't quote it again.

Well you explained what was wrong (for you) with everything else mentioned in the thread, but not the most useful suggestion.

There's no solution from Apple, but I'm pretty sure you could write an alternative AVI import component for QT that would just do nothing (and do it right away, damn it!). If you're really sure you don't want to play AVIs in QT.

GORDYmac · Oct 18, 2004, 10:53 AM

Maybe the workaround here is to just disable the preview pane.

GORDYmac · Oct 18, 2004, 11:19 AM

Another one. Granted, these are from 2001, so I don't even know if these are still available in the Finder.

hotani · Oct 18, 2004, 02:06 PM

yeah at one time i had a utility installed that disabled the preview pane all together. Although that might be a little extreme, I'm considering it. Actually I don't even care to see regular QT files previewed; a big icon with some details would be perfect.

TETENAL · Oct 18, 2004, 02:19 PM

Originally posted by hotani:
yeah at one time i had a utility installed that disabled the preview pane all together.

You don't need a "utility" for that. It's a Finder option.

hotani · Oct 18, 2004, 04:08 PM

back when I had the utility it was not a finder option, but thanks.

awaspaas · 03:30 PM

I was poking around in some of the QuickTime files and I found this:

Code:
/*
 *  SetMoviePreviewMode()
 *  
 *  Availability:
 *    Mac OS X:         in version 10.0 and later in QuickTime.framework
 *    CarbonLib:        in CarbonLib 1.0 and later
 *    Non-Carbon CFM:   in QuickTimeLib 2.5 and later
 *    Windows:          in qtmlClient.lib 3.0 and later
 */
extern void 
SetMoviePreviewMode(
  Movie     theMovie,
  Boolean   usePreview)        AVAILABLE_MAC_OS_X_VERSION_10_0_AND_LATER;

Any programming types make sense out of this? I found it in /System/Library/Frameworks/QuickTime.framework/Versions/A/Headers/Movies.h

xeo's edit: snipped some whitespace so the thread wasn't stretched out.

Chuckit · Oct 18, 2004, 05:11 PM

Originally posted by awaspaas:
I was poking around in some of the QuickTime files and I found this:

It doesn't have anything to do with the Finder's preview pane. Sorry.

GORDYmac · Oct 19, 2004, 01:24 PM

Originally posted by TETENAL:
You don't need a "utility" for that. It's a Finder option.

Not an option in column view.

TETENAL · Oct 19, 2004, 01:42 PM

Originally posted by GORDYmac:
Not an option in column view.

Sure it's an option in column view. In fact that's the only view where you can turn off the preview column, because it's the only view that has the preview column.

dfiler · Oct 19, 2004, 01:44 PM

It is an option in column view. Unfortunately, it has global scope rather than per window. If you disable previews in column view, they are disabled in column view for all folders.

Xeo · Oct 19, 2004, 03:28 PM

If you collapse the arrow, it doesn't load the movie. Better than turning it off completely but not quite as good as being able to selectively not show it.

awaspaas · Oct 19, 2004, 08:37 PM

So come on, are the formats QuickTime chooses to show a preview for hardcoded into the compiled program somewhere? Or does QuickTime simply try to make a preview for any file type that it can actually open? I notice some videos show up as QuickTime icons and some QuickTime tries to show a preview for - is there a rhyme or reason to this? This is something we should be able to figure out, and if there's not a little setting somewhere in one of the plists or something that we can change, surely a developer can write a patch for either the Finder or QuickTime for this to happen!

... or is it completely hopeless?

GoGoReggieXPowars · Oct 21, 2004, 11:59 AM

Originally posted by awaspaas:
Or does QuickTime simply try to make a preview for any file type that it can actually open?

Bingo.

hotani · Oct 21, 2004, 01:26 PM

Originally posted by Xeo:
If you collapse the arrow, it doesn't load the movie. Better than turning it off completely but not quite as good as being able to selectively not show it.

Is there a way to have all of them collapsed by default? That would be perfect really, because then the option would be there to preview files that would actually play.

Currently I have to wait before I see anything at all, then when something shows up I can go collapse the preview for next time. Unfortunately I'm not in front of my machine right now to mess with it.

dfiler · Oct 21, 2004, 01:28 PM

Unfortunately, QT will attempt to preview AVIs which hang the finder. :-(

No way to collapse the preview region in those instances...

tkmd · Oct 21, 2004, 07:25 PM

Originally posted by Xeo:
If you collapse the arrow, it doesn't load the movie. Better than turning it off completely but not quite as good as being able to selectively not show it.

Awesome - worked perfectly. Better yet, change it one file and it works for my whole porn collection.

Xeo · Oct 21, 2004, 10:04 PM

Originally posted by hotani:
Is there a way to have all of them collapsed by default? That would be perfect really, because then the option would be there to preview files that would actually play.

As tkmd said when mentioning his porn, collapsing one collapses them all. They stay collapsed until you expand one. But expanding one expands them all, so you have to remember to collapse it again before you're done.

[APi]TheMan · Oct 22, 2004, 02:17 AM

Originally posted by TETENAL:
Sure it's an option in column view. In fact that's the only view where you can turn off the preview column, because it's the only view that has the preview column.

What he meant to say was:

"If your Finder window is in column mode then 'Show preview pane' becomes an option in 'Show view options' (command-J)"

GORDYmac · Oct 22, 2004, 07:51 AM

Ah, I did not know that, [APi]TheMan...

I'll have to check that out this evening. Thanks.