How To: Show .MKV Thumbnails and Detailed Information in Windows 7
By Tim Hage on Apr 21st, 2010 at 12:43PM
Here at the Olive, we’re no strangers to HD video and playback, and after being annoyed by Windows 7′s inability to display thumbnails or detailed information of our .MKV HD video files, we decided to do something about it. Some research revealed to us DivX’s Tech Preview, which adds this functionality to Windows 7 free of charge. So, we decided to put together a quick tutorial and share the information! Read on after the jump.
All you need to do is grab the 1.66MB installer. download DivX’s 1.13MB DivX Plus Codec Pack. Once the download finishes, run the installer and follow through the steps until it’s complete (as you run through the installer, it will download the components you choose to install). After the installation is finished, you may have to restart your PC to see the changes, but the changes took effect immediately for us. Enjoy your detailed information and great looking thumbnails!
UPDATE:
“Wanted to let you guys know that this DivX Plus Tech Preview of MKV on Windows 7 was graduated to the main software line, and can be downloaded for free from the DivX website:
http://www.divx.com/software/divx-plus/codec-pack/In the latest DivX Plus Software for Windows, you’ll still get the free Media Foundation MKV splitter and thumbnails, as well as the ability to stream MKV files to an Xbox 360 via Windows Media Center Extender.
Hit us up on DivX Labs if you have any questions.”
[Thanks, Porfitron!]
Wanted to let you guys know that this DivX Plus Tech Preview of MKV on Windows 7 was graduated to the main software line, and can be downloaded for free from the DivX website:
http://www.divx.com/software/divx-plus/codec-pack/
In the latest DivX Plus Software for Windows, you’ll still get the free Media Foundation MKV splitter and thumbnails, as well as the ability to stream MKV files to an Xbox 360 via Windows Media Center Extender.
Hit us up on DivX Labs if you have any questions.
[Reply]
Tim Hage Reply on April 21st, 2010 at 1:31 PM
@porfitron, Awesome, thanks for the info! The post has been updated with your information. Much appreciated.
Doesn’t work with COMPRESS HEADER .mkv !!! So explorer.exe consumes all of RAM and has to be killed!
[Reply]
Lag Reply on November 8th, 2011 at 3:00 AM
Alex is right, this is a massive problem leaving windows stuttering and barley usable. Takes a good few mins to get task manager open. shame rly.
Install K-lite Mega Codec Pack First Then ,
set ffdshow as the preferred decoder for H.264 video. First make sure that H.264 is enabled on the Codecs page in ffdshow video decoder configuration. Then use the Win7DSFilterTweaker tool to set it as the preferred decoder in Windows 7.
After you have changed the settings, you need to reboot to make the settings take effect in Windows Explorer. You may also need to clear the thumbnail cache.
[Reply]