Fast video cataloger with Microsoft intune

What is intune?

Intune is a relatively new application deployment technology from Microsoft.

“Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service that focuses on mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM). You control how your organization’s devices are used, including mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. You can also configure specific policies to control applications.”

Can Fast video cataloger run with intune?

You can package the Fast video cataloger installer as a .intunewin file using the Microsoft Intune Win32 App Packaging Tool.

Microsoft Intune Win32 App Packaging Tool will check the Windows Classic setup files and generate a .intunewin file imported into Intune Azure Portal.

You can download the tools from from Microsoft here:  https://github.com/Microsoft/Microsoft-Win32-Content-Prep-Tool

You will need to agree to their license agreement.

Read more about the tool here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/apps/apps-win32-prepare

You can download the Fast video cataloger installer from the Fast video cataloger download page.

You run their tool from the command line and it is pretty straight forward.

Silent or unattended installation of Fast video cataloger

Fast video cataloger uses nsis as an installation package. You can download the latest Fast Video Cataloger installer from our download page. We always sign our installer and run it through antivirus software.

If you want to run the installer silently simply start it with /S (upper S) as a command-line argument.

If you want to run the installer so it installs into another output folder give it the /D argument. /D=<installation directory> to change the default installation directory.

How to share a catalog over the internet

How to share a video catalog over the internet

In Fast video Cataloger 7 we have added the ability to share a video catalog across a windows network or over the internet. It is easy, and you follow the wizard.

web server for videos

When sharing over the internet, you first need to have a web server setup and configured. There are plenty of guides for how to set that up on the internet. If you don’t have a web server already we recommend iis that comes with Windows or the Apache server. We use the Apache version that is distributed with Bitnami. After you have installed the server, make sure it is working and connect to it. Start with localhost and then try from a remote computer. If you don’t have a working web server, the videos will not play, but you will be able to browse the catalog and search. All metadata is loaded using the Fast video cataloger server and not the webserver. The webserver is only used for loading videos and companion images (and if you are using the generated web pages).
Videos need to be at the root of the webserver. The catalog you share should only have videos that are in the root of the webserver. The catalog file you share should not be in the root of the webserver.

 

You share a catalog if you want other users to access it, perhaps at the same time as you are. This is how you create a shared video library for your entire company or a project.

You can stop the server and work on it again as a local catalog if no other user needs access.

When you share a catalog, other users can add videos or photos to the catalog. When they add videos, the video files are indexed locally and then uploaded over the Fast video cataloger service. Loading videos and images are done directly through a windows share while all metadata is accessed over the Fast video cataloger service.

Download the latest version of Fast video cataloger. If you have an older version, you will need to update to version 7 as that is the first version that has support for sharing a catalog over the internet.

Share a video catalog in a Windows network

How to share a video catalog in a Windows network

In Fast video Cataloger 7 we have added the ability to share a video catalog across a windows network. It is super easy, and you follow the wizard.

 

You share a catalog if you want other users to access it, perhaps at the same time as you are. This is how you create a shared video library for your entire company, one place where all the videos are easily accessible and searchable.

You can stop the server and work on it again as a local catalog if no other user needs access.

When you share a catalog, other users can add videos or photos to the catalog. When they add videos, the video files are indexed locally and then uploaded over the Fast video cataloger service. Loading videos and images are done directly through a windows share while all metadata is accessed over the Fast video cataloger service.

Media player classic as video player in Fast video cataloger

Media player classic

A really great and free video player is MPC-HC Media player classic home cinema. From their own site:

“MPC-HC is an extremely light-weight, open-source media player for Windows®. It supports all common video and audio file formats available for playback. We are 100% spyware free, there are no advertisements or toolbars.”

This post will show you how to use media player classic as a video player in Fast video cataloger? But first, what about the internal video player?

The integrated video player

Fast video cataloger has an integrated video player that can play your video straight from the selected thumbnail. There are a whole lot of ways to configure the video player to your liking. The integrated video player is really great for quickly browsing your video collection and finding what you are looking for. However, if you really want to watch a video from your collection you might want to use an external favorite video player.

Setting up media player classic

First download a stable 64-bit version version of MPC-HC from https://mpc-hc.org/downloads/ and unpack it to a folder (or run the installer). I unpacked the program to this folder:
D:\utils\MPC-HC.1.7.13.x64\ so the path to the video player is: “D:\utils\MPC-HC.1.7.13.x64\mpc-hc64.exe”

Just running mpc-hc64.exe will start it with the normal user interface.

You can also start the video player with command line arguments, if you run the program from the command line with the /? switch you get a list of command-line arguments. Here are the ones we are going to use:

/fullscreen : Start in full-screen mode
/play : Start playing the file as soon the player is launched
/close : Close the player after playback (only works when used with /play)
/startpos : start from a time in the video

So let us say we want to start playing a video c:\video files\sample.avi in fullscreen a minute into the video file. We can do that with the following command line:

“D:\utils\MPC-HC.1.7.13.x64\mpc-hc64.exe” “c:\video files\sample.avi” /startpos 00:01:00 /fullscreen

Notice the path to the video file is in quotes since there is a space in the path.

To use this from Fast video cataloger we need to create a command-line with the selected video and the time of the selected thumbnail. You can do this easily with an action.

Media player classic as an action

Actions are created from the preferences in Fast video cataloger.

In preferences go to the “Action” tab and click the “Add” button to create a new action.
1. Enter a good name for your new action and a tool tip. (Don’t name it Play as then it will collide with the normal play-action)

media player classic action name

Name of video player action

2. Click on the execute tab and browse for the mpc-hc64.exe file.

media player classic executable path

pick the media player classic executable

3. Click on the arguments tab and enter the following line as an argument:
“{video_file}” /startpos {thumb_time} /fullscreen /play
The arguments inside {} will be replaced when the action is executed.
Click “Ok” to create your action.

arguments to media player classic

media player classic arguments

Click OK again to close Preferences. Preferences and actions are stored in your local settings and not per catalog.

In Fast video cataloger click the view button and make sure the action window is visible (the button should be blue).

In the Action window, you can find your new command if you expand the custom actions.

Custom video player action

Find the new video player action in the custom actions section

If you click this button now it will play the currently selected video in fullscreen from the time of the selected thumbnail with the mpc video player.

Shortcut to the media player classic action

Now let’s assign a shortcut to the video player. Click the catalog button and then the shortcut button.

video player shortcut

shortcut for video player

In the shortcut dialog scroll to the bottom of the list and you will find your new “Play MPC” command there. Click on the Key column for the command and enter press your new shortcut. Then Click OK to close the shortcut dialog.