Today we released Fast Video Cataloger 3.95, and as always the update is free for current customers.

New video indexing engine

This new version contains a new video indexing engine. The new engine uses a more direct approach to configuring the filters that should be able to index more videos even if DirectShow filters on the computer are misconfigured. This new way of indexing videos is now the default. If you have issues indexing a video with the new version, you can switch back to the old engine from the “Video Indexer” tab in the Preferences, check the “Use windows filters” checkbox. You might also want to switch back if you have rare or custom codecs.

And here’s a tip: if a video fails to index, you can switch index method and retry the failed videos. Some might work with the alternative method.

The integrated video player still uses the default Windows filters so it is possible that videos can be indexed but not played back correctly if filters are misconfigured on the computer.

I might write a more detailed post about how the new engine works later. Anyway, the net result of the update is that most people should have less codec issues and an easier time indexing videos.

Updated components

Now and then, Microsoft release a new compiler, like they did several times in the past. A new compiler means, in theory, faster and better running code and fixed bug in the base libraries. For this version, I took the time to recompile all components of the program with the latest visual studio and the latest c-runtime. In theory this should be an improvement, but in practice you might not notice any difference.

New video keyword search

Keyword search now support “ALL” and “ANY” searches. In the “Advanced filter dialog” on the keyword tab you will now find a “match” radio button. We have wanted to update the whole search interface for a while but instead of waiting to do a whole rewrite I decided to get this important improvement in as soon as possible.

Download the latest version from the download page