Corrupt meta data after annotation sync

Question

Hello forum,

I have a camera that writes a small sized thumbnail and a larger HD preview image to the JPEG's meta data. I was able to extract the preview image with exiftool.exe, EM2 does not show this field. Now I annotate my pictures in EM2 and sync the catalog annotations back to the images. But now the preview image is corrupted because the last 4042 bytes of the preview JPEG are moved in front of the preview JPEG's Exif start header. I was able to figure it out with a hex editor.

Is there any way to prevent the corruption? Of course I could write a script that temporary saves the preview data with exiftool and writes the preview back after sync, but may I missed an easier solution like a hidden config option?

 

Now a second question: Some of the menu commands need QuickTime to work. Do I need to buy QuickTime Pro because with the latest free QuickTime player for Win installed EM2 always points me to the Apple download site.

 

Ok, the last problem: Is there any way to get meters on altitude in the Virtual Earth window on an English (US) EM2? Unfortunately the extension interface does not provide COM event callbacks to catch selection changes with a custom script that could incorporate Google Earth.

 

Although asking for a discontinued product, I'm hoping for help.
Greetings from Germany, Andreas.

 

Answer 1

Hi Andreas,

I've never seen the issue you described with the metadata, so I really can't help there. But I can help with the QT issue - you do not need to buy QT Pro. Apple would love it if you did, but Expression Media will work fine with the free player.

The answer to your final question is I don't think so - sorry. The only thing I could think of to do that would be to change your location to a country that uses the metric system, but that didn't work for me. Expression Media just calls into the Virtual Earth interface, it can't do anything that the interface doesn't provide.

Regards,
Anita

Answer 2

Hi Anita,

thanks for your reply. Must be a hard time for you when many forum members are making requests for alternatives. Ok, let's focus on my problems. :-)

QT: EM2 was installed on XP Pro, then on Vista Business, both 32 Bit. I always had the free QT player installed as well. But the menu entries requiring QT never worked! Whenever I clicked on them I got the message box, that QT is needed for this feature and after my click on OK my browser popped up showing me the Apple QT download site. It seems that EM2 never recognized the already installed QT player. What is wrong?

Virtual Earth: When using the standalone VE client I get a German user interface as well as metric measurements, in EM it is always English. Of course I'm using the same locale and Windows language in both programs. I tried the EM2 English as well as the German version, but the VE interface is always English.
Interestingly the standalone client also has no locale switch option but shows German (That may be solved trough the dynamic install depending on the OS language.), but the web site version of VE always renders in English even with a "German" browser. I didn't find a way to change languages either.

Unfortunately the EM2 writers forgot a (public?) event interface in their automation model. Without that it's hard to write an extension that can act as a VE window replacement. The extension can't be notified about catalog selection changes to put a location pin, polling through the automation model isn't an option IMHO.

 

Now my real problem, the meta data corruption. I read some articles on the exiftool page about JPEG's meta data. What a horrible mess! :-( May you like to read:
Exiftool: Meta standard problems
Exiftool: Writing meta information

My GPS enabled camera writes a HD preview JPEG with over 700kB to the meta data. Because JPEG meta sections are restricted to 64kB each it seems that it is a non standardized extension of meta data. When exporting my annotations EM2 doesn't corrupt the embedded preview totally, I have the same bytes and meta tag afterward. But in fact the last 4000 bytes or so of the embedded preview JPEG are placed in front of the preview's begin. After a manual fix with a hex editor I got the preview image back.

I also encountered another difference: I'm writing the Country code from the catalog to the images in EM2 (e.g. DE). But with Exiftool, this entry is displayed as IPTC:ExpirationTime! Who's using the wrong tag (name)?

After all although I like the way of EM2 I'm very irritated if I can trust EM2 not to destroy my original images after an annotation sync.  Coming to that point it seems that EM2 is useless. :-(

Regards,
Andreas

Answer 3

Hi Andreas,

Wow - ok, let me see if I can help you...

The Adobe Reader thing is supposed to be dynamic, and was when I tested on Windows, but something is obviously going wrong there... What is supposed to happen is that Expression Media checks on load to see whether Adobe Reader is installed or not. If it is installed, it's supposed to enable the menu items and not prompt to see if you want to install the reader. There have been several updates to the Reader since we released SP2, so I wonder if maybe we are having trouble detecting... I can test that tomorrow - it's after 1:00 AM here right now.

VE - I'll have to check with one of the devs or program managers, but I think that we only call the Web interface. I don't believe that we actually have VE code other than calls to and from the web service in Expression Media. I just shot off email to a couple of them so let me get back to you. But if that's the case, Expression Media is going to behave the same way that the Web version does.

Finally, the metadata thing - I see what you mean now. What kind of camera are you using? If I can get ahold of an image, I can file a bug. I'm pretty sure that all of the testing we did were with standard JPEG files, and with a non-standard metadata section, we just aren't handling it well. Not so much a matter of a true bug, because when that code was written files like that probably didn't exist. Still, should be fixed.

Regards,

Answer 4

Hi Andreas,

OK - it looks like the web service does allow sending locale info, so I'd consider the lack of German measurements as a bug, and will file that tonight before I knock off.

Please let me know what kind of camera you are using so I can try to download some images.

Thanks,
Anita