movie thumbnailer (mtn) usage

detailed usage:
  mtn [options] file_or_dir1 [file_or_dir2] ... [file_or_dirn]
options: (and default values)
  -a aspect_ratio : override input file's display aspect ratio
  -b 0.80 : skip if % blank is higher; 0:skip all 1:skip really blank >1:off
  -B 0.0 : omit this seconds from the beginning
  -c 3 : # of column
  -C -1 : cut movie and thumbnails not more than the specified seconds; <=0:off
  -D 12 : edge detection; 0:off >0:on; higher detects more; try -D4 -D6 or -D8
  -E 0.0 : omit this seconds at the end
  -f tahomabd.ttf : font file; use absolute path if not in usual places
  -F RRGGBB:size[:font:RRGGBB:RRGGBB:size] : font format [time is optional]
     info_color:info_size[:time_font:time_color:time_shadow:time_size]
  -g 0 : gap between each shot
  -h 150 : minimum height of each shot; will reduce # of column to fit
  -i : info text off
  -I : save individual shots too
  -j 90 : jpeg quality
  -k RRGGBB : background color (in hex)
  -L info_location[:time_location] : location of text
     1=lower left, 2=lower right, 3=upper right, 4=upper left
  -n : run at normal priority
  -N info_suffix : save info text to a file with suffix
  -o _s.jpg : output suffix
  -O directory : save output files in the specified directory
  -p : pause before exiting; default on in win32
  -P : dont pause before exiting; override -p
  -r 0 : # of rows; >0:override -s
  -s 120 : time step between each shot
  -t : time stamp off
  -T text : add text above output image
  -v : verbose mode (debug)
  -w 1024 : width of output image; 0:column * movie width
  -W : dont overwrite existing files, i.e. update mode
  -z : always use seek mode
  -Z : always use non-seek mode -- slower but more accurate timing
examples:
  to save thumbnails to file infile_s.jpg with default options:
    mtn infile.avi
  to change time step to 65 seconds & change total width to 900:
    mtn -s 65 -w 900 infile.avi
  to step evenly to get 3 columns x 10 rows:
    mtn -c 3 -r 10 infile.avi
  to save output files to writeable directory:
    mtn -O writeable /read/only/dir/infile.avi
  to get 2 columns in original movie size:
    mtn -c 2 -w 0 infile.avi
  to skip uninteresting shots, try:
    mtn -D 4 infile.avi

mtn is a command-line program so its usage will mostly be done in a shell or command prompt. it has many options:

• -w width : width of output image
• If we want the thumbnails to have 3 columns and 10 rows, use: -c 3 -r 10
• Or if we want to have 5 columns and have a shot every 65 seconds, use: -c 5 -s 65
• -r rows will override -s seconds if used together
• Seeking and other features might not work properly when time step (-s seconds) is small. We should keep it above 30.
• If not overridden, the defaults are used: -w 1024 -c 3 -s 120
• These file formats should be supported: .3gp, .3g2, .asf, .avi, .dat, .divx, .dsm, .evo, .flv, .m1v, .m2ts, .m2v, .m4a, .mj2, .mjpg, .mjpeg, .mkv, .mov, .moov, .mp4, .mpg, .mpeg, .mpv, .nut, .ogg, .ogm, .qt, .swf, .ts, .vob, .wmv, .xvid. I haven't tried them all though. :)
• In Windows, you can run mtn.exe from command prompt or drag files/dirs from Windows explorer and drop them on mtn.exe. You can change the default options by creating a shortcut to mtn.exe and add options there (right click the shortcut -> Properties -> Target); then drop files/dirs on the shortcut instead.
• In Linux & others, you'll probably need to change the TrueType font path (-f fontfile). The default is set to tahomabd.ttf which might not exist in non-Windows systems. If you dont have a TrueType font, you can turn the text off by using -i -t.
• Files which have Unicode names, e.g. in Thai Chinese Japanese Korean Greek, do work fine with mtn in both Linux and Windows (as of version 0.61). You need to tell which TrueType font to use though (-f fontfile). ARIALUNI.TTF and Cyberbit.ttf seem like good ones.
  
• -B seconds and -E seconds can be used to omit the beginning and the end of movies. We dont really want to see those credits, do we? :) Or we might not want to show how a movie ends.
• -h minheight of each shot can be set. mtn will reduce the number of column until each shot meets minheight. For example, lets say we usually want 3 columns like:
  ,
  so we'd normally use -c 3. But when we encouter a wide screen format, thumbnails will come out like:
  .
  Oops. Isn't that too tiny? So, with something like -h 100, we'll get:
  .
  Isn't that much nicer? :) Now we can always use -c 3 -h 100 and thumbnails will be ok for all aspect ratios.
• Blank screen detection & evasion is enabled with -b percent -- 100% (1.00) is completely blank, 50% (0.50) is half blank. So, to evade shots which are 80% blank, use -b 0.80. For example, instead of getting blank shots:
  ,
  we can get (with -b 0.6 option):
  
  After the introduction of edge detection, we might want to use that instead, and leave this at the default value.
• Edge detection & blur evasion is enabled with -D number. Shots without edges are blur. The higher the number, the more edges mtn will detect. As a result, with higher numbers, slightly blur shots will be more likely to get through. Try -D 4, -D 6, or -D 8 and pick the one you like (I like -D 6). Note that this feature is not perfect yet and it requires blank screen detection. For example, instead of getting blur (no edge) shots:
  ,
  we can get (with -D 6 option):
  .
  Internally, mtn does something like:
  .
  It only detects edges in those grey boxes to speed things up.
• -k RRGGBB (in hex) sets the background color. So, -k 0000FF would produce a blue background.
• -L info_location[:time_location] can be use to change the locations of the text [time location is optional]. Locations can be 1=lower left, 2=lower right, 3=upper right, 4=upper left. So, -L 1:3 would give us:
  
• -F info_color:info_size[:time_font:time_color:time_shadow:time_size] sets the font formats [time format is optional]. The color needs to be in RRGGBB (in hex) format. -F FFFF00:10 gives us:
  .
  And -F FFFF00:8:comicbd.ttf:ff0000:00ff00:12 gives us:
  .
  Please note that only time stamp fontfile is taken from -F; info text fontfile is still specified by -f. (trailers taken from yahoo, pocketmovies, gamershell)
• -O directory saves output files in the specified directory, which will be created if not exist. Neccessary when the movie files are in read only directories, e.g., CD's/DVD's or mounted image files.
• -W option omits files that already have thumbnails (by checking the existance of the output files).
• -N info_suffix saves file info (name, size, length, codecs) and text given by -T text to a text file with the specified suffix.
• -a aspect_ratio overrides input file's display aspect ratio (DAR). *new*
• -z: always use seek mode, -Z: always use non-seek mode. Seek mode is much faster but doesn't work very well when time step is small; while non-seek mode is slower but good for small time step or small clips. Normally mtn will automatically use the appropriate mode. When it's not sure which mode it use, it'll use seek mode and print out a message.*new*