Video title art

[b4dc0d3r]

I have a lot of random images that seem to be related to VLC, but they are images I have never seen, and I need more information. Even a rude "Here's the section of the FAQ, did you bother reading it?" or a URL would suffice.

They are in \Documents and Settings\[my user name]\Application Data\vlc\art\title\[video name]\

First question is, what is the purpose of those folders?

Why I'm asking. There are folders underneath that, which match the names of avi or mpg I have watched in VLC. However, the images are almost always unlrelated to the video. There is no way they are in the video, and there is no way a website could be sending these to me. As an example, I have very little patience for certain things so I often edit avi or mpg files, cutting them into pieces (using NanDub or VirtualDub) as I remove extra garbage that I would otherwise have to fast forward though. I have watched several of these pieces, and now the folder mentioned above has several subfolders matching the filenames.

One, for example, is a striptease video of a fetching lass, and I chopped the useless bits out, especially the part where she falls over and hits her head, I felt that was out of place. Of course I saved it in a separate video and watch it when I want to remember what a really bad day at work is like. Anyway, there is a folder with the same name of the piece of the avi, and in there is a file "art.jpg" containing what looks like a bad scan of a baseball card - "Ken McMullen" of the Senators, signed. I have no interest in baseball nor baseball cards, do not know who Ken was, and have only heard of the Senators in passing. Another piece of this same avi has a file "art" with no extension, but it's a jpg. Opening it in a viewer gives a picture of a green knit sweater, boots, and hat, about the size of a 1 year old child. Another piece of the same avi has "art.gif" which is a graph comparing QLT return, S&P index, and NasDaq biotech index for Dec. 2001-Dec. 2006.

I want to repeat - I chopped this file into bits using open source tools, and have never seen these images to my knowledge, and they bear no relation to the content of the video. What are they doing in my VLC folder? Where can I find specific information on how album art or whatever it is is extracted, download, or otherwise managed by VLC? Where can I control options about when/how this is done?

I assure you this sounds as strange to me as it does to you, and there is no explanation for these random images being where they are that involves me. Not sure what this feature is so I didn't have luck searching for it. I got generic information that vlc supports album art in some way, as in a feature list.

[VLC_help]

VLC should only fetch art from audio files that have some art in them. At least in my case the only files are from some MP3 files that have embedded metadata art. So you might have some audio/video files that have hidden metadata in them.

--auto-preparse, --no-auto-preparse
Automatically preparse files (default enabled)
Automatically preparse files added to the playlist (to retrieve some
metadata). (default enabled)
--album-art={0 (Manual download only), 1 (When track starts playing), 2 (As soon as track is added)}
Album art policy
Choose how album art will be downloaded.

in case you want to disable this feature.

[b4dc0d3r]

edit: My files are videos and have absolutely no metadata in them. I verified using several programs as well as separating the audio/video streams, validating the streams, and recombining using Nandub, and then viewing in UltraEdit (hex mode). That took a while.

Unedited:
hahaha lol. I see how this works. VLC opens a request to google images and tries to download the most relevant image for the media. Opening "Stocking Secrets -#3.01.avi" makes a google search for that filename, followed by a request for the first image. In this case, VLC requested:

GET /images/2008/07/31/eeebuntudesktop.jpg HTTP/1. 1
Host: http://www.jkontherun.com

The server returned 404, making the local folder but not downloading an image for it. It also explains why the images returned bear no relation to the videos. Google is nice, but it isn't psychic

I consider this a severe privacy risk, and I am astonished that every time, by default, the filename of every video file I watch is being sent, unencrypted, to the internet, and I've been using VLC for years and had no idea. So my followup questions.

1) Is this supposed to happen for AVI/MPG files? Your response makes it seem like only audio files should be affected.
2) Is the user notified, at any point, that their media habits are being sent to the most powerful data mining company in history?
3) Is this supposed to be enabled by default???

Notice the 3 question marks on the last one, that is me saying, if you say yes to this one, I would really like a thoughtful response. My friend could send me a file named "6 year old sucking D**k.avi" which is actually a quite hilarious picture of a 6 year old dog affectionately licking Dick Cheney's hand, and now the internet thinks I'm a paedophile. Or the ever-popular "young chick and p****.mpg" which shows a duckling and a catling (otherwise known as a kitty cat). I'm sure you've seen at least the picture. Or "young boobies" which is actually a blue-footed booby hatchling. Given that the NSA (USA) probably is compiling data on all internet users via their ISPs, is this not an excessive, unadvertised, potential breach of user privacy?

The front page of slashdot has this story from earlier today, whether it is true I cannot say, but it is a terrifying possibility:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/29/1519237

The above was captured using WinPCap/WireShark, and yes I am a programmer and will read the source. My question is, is this all intended, and did I miss the big warning somewhere?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Did you read VLC_help answer?

[b4dc0d3r]

Yes, j-b, and that answer bears no relation to what I'm experiencing, which is why I posted additional information and questions. If you are thinking I posted without comprehending that response, could you please point out what I'm missing?

I have an AVI with no metadata in it, and VLC is downloading unrelated images via google images based on the filename alone. What I'm seeing is completely unrelated to album art or metadata. VLC_help response says it should be extracting embedded metadata from the file, which should not involve the internet or google images or third party servers.

The parsing switch should be irrelevant because there is nothing embedded to parse. The album art switch should be unrelated as well, because not every video file is going to be an album.

Either it's working as expected or it's not, and I don't know what is expected behavior to know if this is a bug. It seems VLC is assuming that all video files are albums, and it is leaking data about which videos you watch to the internet, both google images and third party web sites. If this is the intended design, I think a lot of people would be surprised to find an unadvertised network connection leaking private data, as well as having to set an option that does not seem related to stop it. So the question is, as I described it, is this really how it is supposed to work, by default, with no warning?

[VLC_help]

When you first started VLC, what options you chose from that popup window?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Yes, j-b, and that answer bears no relation to what I'm experiencing, which is why I posted additional information and questions. If you are thinking I posted without comprehending that response, could you please point out what I'm missing?

Yeah, VLC doesn't download anything, by default.
The first start of VLC ask what permission you let VLC to download those stuffs.
You have plenty of options to stop all those things.

[b4dc0d3r]

Thank you, this answers the question.

Although, I'm not sure that's everything. I uninstalled the current version and re-installed a prior one (8.6a), and confirmed the default at each install is manual download, and never to contact the internet. I may have deleted old installations, but unless you know a version that set preferences to automatically download, I have no way to reproduce this with 8.6a nor 9.8a. I can only assume I installed this whilst high or intoxicated or on mushrooms, not remembering ever having mushrooms.

However, I did delete preferences. I accepted defaults, and no download happens on double-click. With a file playing I double click, no download. So far so good. Change preferences to "When track starts playing" and no download. While playing a file also no download, good.

I changed several times between "When track starts playing" and "as soon as track is added" and at some point it did download album art for an MPG file. It did not download for another MPG file, though "As soon as track is added" is selected. I change3d it to "as soon as a track starts playing" and it downloaded another mpg file album art. opening "(Amatoriale) - Ragazzina porcona fa di tutto in bagno.mpg" returned what looks like a gay Roger Ebert with a heart shaped necklace and a cigar. "2 Luba - Bikini Babe Vcd.mpg" returns an advert for "Tropic Thunder".


Regardless of anything else, when I have selected an option to download album art, should VLC contact google or any other server and tell it what video I am watching? I believe if a user sets this option to download art, it should not operate on videos.

In fact I found this
D:\vlc-0.9.8a\src\playlist\engine.c(602):* \todo don't do this for things we won't get meta for, like vids...

If this is the problem I describe it would be important to fix this soon before other users leak privacy information to the internet.