How to change the icons of movie files?

[Arkwell]

I have all my movie files on my computer, and I link them to my xbox through media center. I have one file which came with a image file somehow embedded into the video file, so the icon in windows explorer is the dvd cover, and likewise when I view it on my tv through windows media center on my xbox, it has a nice picture aswell instead of text. does anyone know how to do this?

 

[Arkwell]

hmm

no one? :/

 

[A Guy]

Welcome to Seven Forums Arkwell. It's not that everyone is ignoring you. But when questions do not have well known or common answers, often people will not reply when they don't have your answer. I did some googling, and see lots of posts about embedding cover art in MP3's, but not so much about DVD art. I found this thread which may be a jumping off point for some ideas as to what to look for:

Here

Hoping someone will have some better ideas and add to this. A Guy

 

[Arc]

Do you want something like this ?



Actually I dont know how to add an album art in a video file ( I know how to do it for a music file), but there is a way to do the same thing, though a bit laborious . I am describing the steps below :
1. Download an album art for your video (I use google image search for it)
2. Make it square using any image editor. Dont crop, just resize, say 400x400 pixels
3. make a folder for your video, put the resized image in it, name it folder.jpg, and hide it.
4. You are done

Now look the explorer folder, add those to media player or media center, and see the change

If there is any trouble doing it, make me know

 

[Arkwell]

hmm

yah i knew about doing that..the image files dont have to be in the folders, you can just right-click on the folders and set a picture as the icon.
i just didnt want to have to do this bc most of my movies arent in folders, and id have to put them all in their own one, which would take a while

theres like literally nothing on google about it..nothing about setting an image file somehow embedding it into a video file..even though i clearly have an mpeg movie that has an image file somehow embedded into it..i thought the programs you can dl for embeddng image files into mp3s might be the same principle, but it seems not..

 

[Arc]

the image files dont have to be in the folders, you can just right-click on the folders and set a picture as the icon.

May you please guide me through the process ? I really dont know whether I can set a picture as icon in windows. I knew that you can set an icon as icon , and if it is a live folder icon, you can force a picture to be displayed as preview.

Your help there would be highly appreciated

 

[tw33k]

This is the best way I found: DVD Library Manager

 

[Arkwell]

hmm,..i downloaded that program but it doesnt seem very good

i guess ill just have to say screw it and forget trying..obviously not possible to achieve this easily

oh and you just right click on the folder and set a pic as the icon folder picture

 

[epicPROphecy]

Apparently there is no easy way to do this and the methods are different for windows 7 32 bit and 64 bit systems.

Here is a video of somebody doing what I think you are trying to accomplish: YouTube - Windows 7 Tip: Change Video Thumbnail Icons To DVD Covers

Basically you just create a shortcut and hide the existing file because you can change the icon on a shortcut. Now, the method differs on the two operating systems if you wish to get rid of the shortcut arrow overlay. Here is the tutorial for 32 bit windows 7 or Vista

Disable Shortcut Icon Arrow Overlay in Windows 7 or Vista - How-To Geek

For Windows 7 64 bit download Ultimate Windows Tweaker : Ultimate Windows Tweaker, a TweakUI for Windows 7 & Vista | The Windows Club

and go to additional tweaks and check the "Remove arrows from shortcut Icons" box and you should be all set.

 

[boohbah]

If you look at media browser then you will be able to view all your movies via the browser and see the film posters/ covers and have all the meta data for the movie.
there are tons of features and if you want to use it then i have a file that you can run in your movie folder that will put all the movies in a individual folder and they would be named at the click of a button.
check the mediabrowser sticky thread in media center forum. trust me you will be made up with this if/when you start to use it properly

 

[isemco]

My Method to achieve this

I use this method to display the DVD cover in Explorer + Ensure DVD cover is also displayed on X-Box/WMC when I browse my library.

Here's my method:
1- Download the DVD cover image, save it to your library location
1a- Ensure the image and movie have the exact same name (except suffix)
2- Open new project in Windows Live Movie Maker
3- Click Add Videos and photos
3a- Add the DVD cover image first
3b- Add the movie itself after the DVD cover
** This basically makes the DVD cover image the first ~5 seconds of the movie
4- Save Movie
4a- It will save in WMV format.
5 (optional) Convert the WMV file to any other format you like (I use WinFX to convert to .AVI)

Voila!

 

[Guntmeister]

If the movie file is an .mp4 then all you need to do is name the dvd cover picture "folder.jpg"and put it in the folder with the movie. Works here anyway. I have shark codec pack installed if that makes any difference. Only works for mp4 movies.

 

[MrOmykiss]

I know I'm not allowed to use foul language on this forum, but you can use iTunes to add cover art to mp4 video files.

 

[MrOmykiss]

Update

Since my last post I have found two small programs that seem to do the job of adding jpeg images to video files, AudioShell and Tag&Rename. When I first tried these programs they seemed to lock up and not respond once I started the image transfer, but it turned out if you have a large video file and/or a slow connection to your network hard drive, this process can take several minutes. If you look in the folder where the transfer is taking place, you'll notice a newly created .tmp file and once it reaches the same size as your video file, the process is complete and the .tmp file is deleted.

If you would like more information on AudioShell click here.

I'm running Window 7, 32-bit.

 

[Verney]

Easy Fix

I know this thread was made a while ago, but for anyone else looking to do this. iTunes is the easiest way.
It doesn't matter what OS you are using.

1. Download iTunes, install and set it all up.
2. Find the drop down menu (usually top right of window) and find the "Add file to library option
3. Find the movie you want to change (it may be in your "home videos" tab if its not in the "My Movies" tab
4. Right click the movie and click "Get Info", then under the "Artwork" tab you can add your own artwork.

This will change the thumbnail for the video where ever its saved. Unfortunately you still have to go and save all the images you want to you (you used to be able to drag and drop, but that's been removed)

 

[ng4ever]

Do you want something like this ?

View attachment 79276

Actually I dont know how to add an album art in a video file ( I know how to do it for a music file), but there is a way to do the same thing, though a bit laborious . I am describing the steps below :
1. Download an album art for your video (I use google image search for it)
2. Make it square using any image editor. Dont crop, just resize, say 400x400 pixels
3. make a folder for your video, put the resized image in it, name it folder.jpg, and hide it.
4. You are done

Now look the explorer folder, add those to media player or media center, and see the change

If there is any trouble doing it, make me know

Forgive me for bumping this old thread but I couldn't find a way to PM the user. I looked if I am a blind please let me know.

Arc how do you get the pictures of movies to fit exactly on the folders without cutting off the title of the movie? Every time I follow your instructions no matter how small I make the image the title of the movie words get cut off.

Please help. Thanks.

 

[derekimo]

Forgive me for bumping this old thread but I couldn't find a way to PM the user.

Welcome to the forum,

You can't PM as a new member, I notified Arc of your question though.

 

[Arc]

Arc how do you get the pictures of movies to fit exactly on the folders without cutting off the title of the movie? Every time I follow your instructions no matter how small I make the image the title of the movie words get cut off.

Please help. Thanks.

I dont do anything else other than what I said, mate.

Doing it right now to check .... a hypothetical movie folder ....

​

And it worked again.

Are you cropping the image during resizing?

 

[ng4ever]

Do you want something like this ?

View attachment 79276

Actually I dont know how to add an album art in a video file ( I know how to do it for a music file), but there is a way to do the same thing, though a bit laborious . I am describing the steps below :
1. Download an album art for your video (I use google image search for it)
2. Make it square using any image editor. Dont crop, just resize, say 400x400 pixels
3. make a folder for your video, put the resized image in it, name it folder.jpg, and hide it.
4. You are done

Now look the explorer folder, add those to media player or media center, and see the change

If there is any trouble doing it, make me know

Arc how do you get the pictures of movies to fit exactly on the folders without cutting off the title of the movie? Every time I follow your instructions no matter how small I make the image the title of the movie words get cut off.

Please help. Thanks.

I dont do anything else other than what I said, mate.

Doing it right now to check .... a hypothetical movie folder ....

View attachment 385902
​

And it worked again.

Are you cropping the image during resizing?

I don't think I am cropping the image during resizing why ?

This is what mine looks like.

See the title of the movie is cut off. It is called The Return the other name is in Russian.

This is what is should look like.

 

[Arc]

The point 4 of my post says ... you need to give the image a squarish shape. So I did ....

​

And here is the result ....

​

The desktop thumbnail uses a square image. If the thumbnail preview assumes the square by itself, it may not be the thumbnail preview that you are wanting. So provide it yourself.