GUI Hangs

[Pierre]

I am exporting all metadata from a group M2TS files to txt using XP OS.  Works fine but after a couple directories processed the software hangs.  Have to close with Task Manager

[BogdanH]

It's somehow hard to help.. What ExifTool version are you using? What GUI version? What command/menu are you executing? On how many files at once? Does this happen only if using GUI? Have you tried ExifTool via command line?
I am not familiar with M2TS files (video, right?) and because I'm using GUI on photo files only, I can hardly tryout... Video files can be huge and I don't know how ExifTool parses them...

Bogdan

[Pierre]

GUI version 3.38 using Exiftool 8.20
I am using the GUI Export Metadata to text file and there are about 40 files. but very little metadata.
I haven't tried the command line, it's a one time event...
Exiftools handles the M2TS data and I was using the -All Metadata  option to get the information out.
I was able to get all my 350 files done (~40 per run), but had to restart the program (Crt-Alt_Del) several times...
It looked like it finished the job but the form that lists the work completed would not come up and the program hang.. 

[Pierre]

I just tried the 4.11 version and see there are some differences...It ran but the the output included the following:
Warning                         : Synchronization error

[Phil Harvey]

This error indicates that there wasn't a valid sync byte at the start of the M2TS frame like there should be, which could be due to a corrupted file.

This behaviour could have changed in ExifTool version 8.52 when I added the ability to calculate the duration of M2TS files (since it now scans to the end to look at the timestamps in the last frames of the file).  Adding the -fast option disables this feature, so it may avoid the warning too.

- Phil

[BogdanH]

To Pierre
Old GUI was prone to "freeze" on large amount of large files. I wouldn't say it was a bug... I just didn't know a better way to communicate with ExifTool. Later, Phil gave me a hint on ExifTool's -v0 switch, which is now used in GUI and hopefully solved many problems (plus made "counter" implementation possible).

To Phil
About -fast usage... does it mean, that without -fast, ExifTool is "scanning" whole files? I mean, recent raw image files are getting big (not to mention video).
Asking another way: If I execute

Code Select Expand

exiftool -All myImage.cr2
and then

Code Select Expand

exiftool -fast -All myImage.cr2
will I get different output? Are there cases better to avoid using -fast?

Bogdan

[Phil Harvey]

The -fast is only really useful when the file is being obtained via a slow device (like an internet connection).  On a random-access disk, seeking to the end of the file is quick.

With JPEG and TIFF-format images, -fast only prevents exiftool from scanning for an unreferenced trailer, which is rare anyway.

- Phil