How To Use Imdb-Thumbnailer [Version 0.8.2, Released]

Imdb-thumbnailer is a program (well, script actually) which sets movie covers fetched from IMDB as thumbnails in Nautilus and Thunar.

Imdb-thumbnailer 0.8.2 has been released today, fixing some issues with the new IMDb design (which made it stopped working).

How to use Imdb-thumbnailer

Imdb-thumbnailer is easy to install (comes with .deb and .rpm files), but it takes a few commands to configure it - but don't worry, it's easy:

1. Once you've downloaded (download link at the end of the post) and installed it, you'll have to edit the Imdb-thumbnailer config file and specify the folders where you keep your movies: (we'll also have to run Imdb-thumbnailer in the terminal once, so it creates the config file)

imdb-thumbnailer
gedit ~/.imdb-thumbnailer/config

And configure the "films_path[1]" variable by specifing your movies directory. Example:

films_path[1]=/path/to/your/movies

You can of course add multiple paths, each with its own "films_path[X]" variable (increase "X" each time you add a new location). Example:

films_path[1]=/home/Movies/
films_path[2]=/myexternalhdd/Movies
films_path[3]=/path/to/your/movies
films_path[4]=/path/to/your/movies2

Important: don't use symbolic links for the movies path - it won't work!


2. Now set Imdb-thumbnailer to use:

a) Nautilus:

imdb-thumbnailer --set-nautilus

b) or Thunar:

imdb-thumbnailer --set-thunar

3. Restart the file manager you've set Imdb-tnumbnailer to use. For Nautilus, use the following command:

nautilus -q

Imdb-thumbnailer comes with a lot of options: you can use different themes, the thumbnail size and so on. You can find out more by running the following command:

imdb-thumbnailer --help

Note: for this to work, the movie names have to be exact (you can also add the movie year in the brackets).

Download Imdb-thumbnailer (.deb., rpm and .tar.gz files available)

Image credits: Yuzem, the Imdb-thumbnail author.

Music Album Covers And Picture Previews As Folder Thumbnails In Nautilus [Ubuntu / Linux]

The trick to use folder.jpg images as the icon for a certain folder in Ubuntu which we wrote about some time ago only works for Jaunty. But luckily, the same Stephen O'Sullivan has found a way to make this work in Ubuntu Karmic Koala.

This time, the script comes in a .deb package and it's called Cover Thumbnailer, and it displays music album covers, preview of the pictures which are in a folder, etc. in Nautilus. That means that it's no longer necessary to have a folder.jpg file inside a folder in order for the thumbnail to be displayed!

Cover thumbnailer is a small Python script which displays music album covers in nautilus, preview of pictures which are in a folder and more.

The script fits in nautilus like any other thumbnailer of the GNOME thumbnail factory and it basically works out of the box. Also, this script is dynamic, meaning that when you add a new folder, it immediately transforms it into a thumbnail.

Download Cover Thumbnailer (Packages available for Ubuntu - .deb, and .tar.gz for other Linux distributions).

Note: after installing Cover Thumbnailer, you need to log out and log back in!

How To Set IMDB Images As Video Thumbnails In Nautilus And Thunar [Linux]

The following post will explain how to replace the video thumbnails for their IMDB images, like so:

Please note that I wasn't able to make this to work, it seems some package on my computer prevents it from working, but I read it on many blogs and it seems to work for almost everyone, so it will probably also work for you. Update: Actually, I got it to work by cleaning my Nautilus thumbnails cache using BleachBit:

That being said, here's what you need to do:

1. For this trick, we will use imdb-thumbnail, a package available in both rpm (Fedora, Red Hat, etc) and .deb (Ubuntu, Debian, etc) packages. If you don't use one of these distributions, there is also the tar.bz2 package. Download the package suited for your distro from these links and install it.

2. Now, let's configure it. Open a terminal and:

a) If you use Nautilus:

imdb-thumbnailer --set-nautilus

b) If you use Thunar:

imdb-thumbnailer --set-thunar

3. We also need to edit some config files. Run the following command:

gedit ~/.imdb-thumbnailer/config

And change the contents like so:

films_path[1]=/path/to/your/movies

Replacing /path/to/your/movies and so on, with the exact path to the folder where you keep your movies. You can add as many lines as you want, but remember to increase the numbere between the brackets with each line.

4. Finally, the last file we need to edit:

gedit ~/.bashrc

And paste this at the end of the file:

alias imdb-up='find /path/to/your/movies/* -type f | while read -r line ; do imdb-thumbnailer -u "$line" ; done'

Again, replace /path/to/your/movies/ with the exact path to your movies folder.

[Credits: elsoftwarelibre, bitelia]