STV Import: Photoshop Elements Catalog Viewer v2 (Default & SageMC)

[cncb]

This import allows you to browse/view an Adobe Photoshop Elements catalog in SageTV. You can select photos and videos to view based on the albums and tags you create in PSE and/or by different date ranges, ratings, etc. You can then view the results as a slideshow supporting both photos and videos. The main differences between the first version and v2 of this STVi are that the files are no longer imported into the Sage database and the new PSE database format is supported. If you have PSE v5 or earlier you will have to use the previous version of the STVi here.

Notes

• The new "horizontal" and (classic) "vertical" browser styles can be toggled in the Options menu.
• The Calendar view shows the years and months and number of files that exist for the current filter.
• Note that only the PSE database is used and files are NOT imported/duplicated in the Sage database.
• The custom slideshow player displays captions that can be toggled with the Info button and it handles mixed photos & videos.
• "Smart albums" from PSE cannot be accessed in Sage.

Download here.

[Brent]

Dang, it looks really nice Craig. Wish I still used PSE - I've moved on to Picasa for all photo management.

Soooo, if you ever get bored I'd just love to see this sort of thing for Picasa

[nwboater]

Thanks a lot Craig for all your hard work! Now we finally get to update from V4 to 8.

Rod

[cncb]

Originally Posted by Brent

Soooo, if you ever get bored I'd just love to see this sort of thing for Picasa

I don't think I will get bored but I wil keep this in mind .

[AV_Novice]

Craig - I am curious how this works. I run SageTV on my WHS. Does PSE have to be on the WHS, too.

Also, I recently read a blog about using PSE to tag photos since it puts the tags into each picture file instead of maintaining it's own database. Does your import use the photo tags or is it actually using a database maintained by PSE?

I am wondering if I could use your import to sort based on tags in the files without having PSE.

[cncb]

Hi,

PSE actually works in the opposite way. It will initially use the keyword tags contained in the photo files themselves when importing files (only if you tell it to). It then uses its own database to operate and doesn't write any Tags to the photo files (for external programs to use) unless you manually do it yourself.

This plugin requires the database/catalog files created by PSE but it doesn't require PSE to function. So, you don't need PSE installed on your WHS PC. You just need to have the PSE catalog files and photo files accessible on your WHS PC (i.e. use network paths for all your files or copy everything over such that the local paths are the same).

[cncb]

I am having problems playing my 720P MP4 videos inside the PSE interface - choppy and unwatchable. They play perfectly in WMP with the built-in Windows 7 codecs. Adobe support is a joke - 3 weeks to respond to my support ticket and they responded with worthless FAQs about a different product. I am starting to regret my decision to return to PSE...

[nwboater]

Hi Craig,

Santa brought my Wife the PSE upgrade from our old V4 to the new V8. Have it installed and working and am trying to get your new viewer running.

We are now using MC and have Sage installed on a WHS machine. I have gotten through your install steps up to selecting the catalog. When I click on PSE Viewer in the Main Menu I get the attached screen:

Don't know if this is what the screen should look like, but there are no catalog choices shown. I get this screen on both my computer running Placeshifter (to Sage on the WHS Server) and on the TV fed from an HD200.

Any ideas? I know when I installed your earlier version I had some difficulties as a result of not extracting the zipped files to the proper directories. In this case I unzipped your Jar folder to SageTV/SageTV/Jars, and your STV folder to SageTV/SageTV/STV.

Hope you are having a great Holiday Season.

Thanks,
Rod

PS I hope my Screen Capture showed in the post.

[cncb]

Hi Rod,

I have seen this before when I initially import the STVi but it goes away with a restart of the extender and the server. If it still exists after this, I would check that you have a recent version of the base SageMC STV (into which you are importing the STVi). I have v 6.3.9a.

[nwboater]

Hi Craig,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

Restarted the WHS Server and the extender and still have the problem.

I should mention that when it appears, the text in the upper left is all blurry - like there is a lot of text stacked on top of each other. If I hit escape it says 'Photoshop Elements'. If I hit escape again it gives the stacked text look. Also the text extends a fair bit more to the right than it does when it just says 'Photoshop Elements'.

Doing escape as mentioned above is only possible when using Placeshifter on my desktop PC. When using the HD200 Extender I can't seem to make it read clear. In any event there is never any catalog showing - unless it's in the stacked text that is very unreadable.

I'm using SageMC 6.3.9 Pre release 'b'.

Thanks,
Rod

[cncb]

Rod,

2 presses of escape should take you back to your main menu (the first one closes the options menu that you aren't able to see and the second one should take you to the previous screen which should be the main menu). Any chance you're loading the STVi as an STV by accident instead of importing it into the base STV?

Otherwise I would try to get the v6.3.9a STV for SageMC and import this STVi from there. This version definitely works for me. Something may have changed in the "pre-release" version that is causing your issue.

[wsack]

Wow, this add-on is fantastic!

The only thing that I'm having trouble with is the orientation of some of the photos. My digital camera (Canon S50) detects how the camera was being held when the picture was taken. It inserts information in the photo's metadata that indicates the orientation of the camera. For example, "orientation normal" if the camera was held right-side up or "orientation rotate 90" if the camera was held sideways when the photo was taken. PSE auto-rotates the picture when it sees this metadata so that it appears right side up no matter how the camera was being held. In SageTV, these pictures are not rotated, so some of the photos appear sideways. Is there anyway to read this metadata and auto-rotate the photos?

[cncb]

Originally Posted by wsack

Is there anyway to read this metadata and auto-rotate the photos?

Sorry, no. I think you will find Windows Explorer and other programs will also not display these properly. I would recommend that you consider making sure the "Rotate JPEGs using orientation metadata" is unchecked in the PSE Files Preferences and then rotate these photos manually. This is what I did a few years ago when I discovered this problem and it will ensure that your photos will appear properly no matter what program you use.

[wsack]

I was afraid of that. However, I did some searching and it looks like there are some batch utilities that can look at the metadata and rotate the files. So maybe this is easily fixable without having to manually go through my 10000 photos!

Again, thanks a lot for this plug-in. About a year ago, before I switched to SageTV, I was trying Vista Media Center with the PSE plug-in that is provided by Adobe. It was painfully slow and pretty much completely unusable. This one blows it away.

[cncb]

Thanks. I'm glad you like it.

Originally Posted by wsack

I was afraid of that. However, I did some searching and it looks like there are some batch utilities that can look at the metadata and rotate the files. So maybe this is easily fixable without having to manually go through my 10000 photos!

You could try the search in PSE (Find | By Details (metadata)). If you look for Orientation by "Portrait" it might find all that need to be manually rotated.

[nwboater]

Hi Craig,

I got sidetracked from my previous dysfunctional install, but am once again trying it.

This time I'm not using Sage MC, just the standard. The install seems to have gone properly, but .......

When I go to Sage Main Menu, Media Center I get Photoshop Elements. Selecting it, it asks me to load a catalog. Our catalog is on our WHS as is Sage. I get to the folder the catalog is in, assuming that "catalog.pse8db" is the catalog file name. But when I try to drill down to the catalog file name, it only gives me the options of 2 subfolders "Breezedata" & "syncdb". I thought in the older version I could pick the actual catalog file.

So my only valid option seems to pick the folder and then "Select Current". When I do and then select "Save and Reload", it immediately gives the PSE Options screen again. I think it's looking for the catalog file name in the folder and isn't finding what it wants - correct? In any case I can't get any further than that. Would sure appreciate any ideas you may have.

BTW I have the same problem on our HD200 Extender that's connected to the server, and on PlaceShifter on my desktop.

Thanks very much.
Rod

[cncb]

Hi Rod,

Yes, you do select a directory now instead of the catalog file. I tried it with the default STV and it seems to work for me. You need to navigate until you are inside the catalog directory (you will see the "syncdb" directory in the list on the right) and then do "Select Current". If this is what you are doing and it is not working then I don't know if WHS is causing some unforeseen problems. Is it a local directory or network directory that you are selecting?

[nwboater]

Hi Craig,

Thanks for getting right back to me. Yes when I'm at the folder where the catalog is I see "syncdb" and "breezedata" on the right. I then "Select Current" and it immediately shows your options screen again.

The directory I'm selecting is on the WHS Server: It's D:\shares\photos\....about 3 other subdirectories.....then the folder that the Catalog is in.

Not sure if you are familar with WHS, but when it shows something in the Shares folder "D:\shares" it could be on either of our two physical hard drives. WHS actually puts the files where it wants so the user doesn't have to worry about drive letter assignments on the network.

Does that sound like it should be a problem?

Sure hope we can somehow work this out. Thanks again, Craig.

Rod

[vividweb]

WOW. So far so good. Installed and have played with it a little bit. Saw your plugin that worked with older versions and wished you would upgrade PSE. Am very happy now. Just need to get all the tags correct on the photos. Thanks again.

[vividweb]

Is there a chance that this is going to get updated to a v7 plugin? I have loved it since using it.