Jpg files with embedded additional images or videos - Make visible

Started by ubacher, April 07, 2021, 07:10:40 PM

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ubacher

Modern smartphone cameras have options which produce jpg files with embedded
video files or additional embedded images.
(On my Samsung phone the options Motion photos, Selective focus and Virtual shot do that.)

When we read such files into Imatch we have no indication of the presence of such hidden files.

The only way to detect this is to look at the exiftool listing of the metadata.
In the Exiftool listing it says "use -b option to extract"

I currently assign a color coded category to such files "contains embedded files" to
alert me.

I put this question here for discussion:
Should Imatch mark such files and how?
An automatic option to extract the embedded files
might be nice (to at least inspect them) although this can be done with an exiftool preset (I think).
Another desirable option might be to strip the embedded image(s) to save space.
Exiftool might already have the option to do this.

Maybe something for the next version of Imatch.

I see four actions concerning such files:
- Remove the embedded files to save space.
- extract the embedded files - to be used or just to inspect/view
- preserve the original file so that it can be returned to the smartphone for display.
- preserve the file in case there will be a windows program which can display it in the future.

And I just thought of an elegant option: extract the embedded files and put them in a stack!
This would be consistent with the usual way of handling several images which are/were combined
into a final image (think HDR)

Mario

I recall that Samsung (?) did a proprietary extension to JPEG files for that. Do you use a Samsung phone?
I cannot find anything in the JPEG standard that would make this 'official', seems just like another custom data block added, which an application needs to understand, implement code to work with etc.
ExifTool probably treats it as a preview and you can extract it using exiftool -b -EmbeddedVideoFile photo.jpg >video.mp4 I think.

Please always provide sample files. Different camera vendors will do different things. These "special" formats are often used as a customer lock-in tool, mind. Apple has something similarly proprietary, and some Google phones too.
I don't use Samsung phones anymore (too much customization for Android, too much bloatware) so I have no samples in my lab.

Have you checked the metadata in the ECP? I'm sure there should be at least one tag which you can use to tell if the file has an embedded video.
And then use that to indicate these files in the File Window, group them automatically into a category etc.
IMatch has all the tools on-board.
-- Mario
IMatch Developer
Forum Administrator
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ubacher

Exiftool obviously detects the presence of embedded files. I will ask at the Exiftool forum if
there is a way to get an  "embedded files present" tag. (I have not seen anything like it in the existing
exiftool listing.) I will report back.