A pic & movie browser with icon previews

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When I got my Mac a few months ago, I was disappointed to learn that Finder only shows previews of picture files.

I'm looking for an application that lets me browse folders while showing previews of all files - at least picture and movie files. I've tried Pathfinder, but that didn't show previews of mpg files.

If you've used Konqueror (KDE) on Linux you know what I'm looking for. Konqueror even shows proper previews of html and text files.

Any pointers appreciated!
 
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I just browse finder in column view. Hit apple+3 in a finder window, and it'll give you previews of all image and a lot of the movie files you select. You can even play entire movies at preview size without opening any other app.

In addition to this, in Finder, go to View>Show View Options, and tick Show Icon Preview. That should also help you out.

HTML and text file previews would be pretty cool sometimes - but I just make sure I name things in a way I'll remember them.
 
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Thank you for the reply!

However, I really do need proper previews in the icons themselves. It makes it so much faster to organize pics & movies from my camera.
 
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Thank you for the reply!

However, I really do need proper previews in the icons themselves. It makes it so much faster to organize pics & movies from my camera.

I know that if you save a file in Photoshop the icon itself becomes a preview. I'm not sure how else you can achieve this.
 
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With my pentax camera I got ACDSEE - I don't really love though, but it shows you a preview of pictures and videos (just tried it) and has that "explorer/finder" mode where you can browse through folders and see the little preview pictures.

Unfortunately it's not free. Here is a link for a trial version: http://www.soft32.com/download_104490.html

It's not very expensive and as long as it does what you want... :)
 
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Thank you for the reply!

However, I really do need proper previews in the icons themselves. It makes it so much faster to organize pics & movies from my camera.

proper? I don't understand how the solution I suggested wasn't 'proper' previews. Turning that view option on will create thumbnail previews for all your photos. Both methods show a preview icon of the files (images at least) If you're looking at a preview of a photo you took, you should be able to recognise the preview in an instant. When I was travelling I had several thousand photos organised like this, and had no troubles. Column browsing will give a larger, more detailed preview with additional information. That's probably the best you'll get short of using iPhoto to organise everything.

If you're organised from the start, it's much less of a headache later, trust me. I've had to organise up to around 500 photos at a time, all with original file names. Finder is brilliant in this sense because the previews save heaps of time which may be spent opening files to check them. This way, you don't need to, so I fail to see where the problem lies...
 

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I have not really looked for an app for myself that will do what you're looking for, but here are a couple I found you might give a try.
You will want to check out mac57's site, he has a Linux to Mac switcher guide there

Found this one at mac57's site - while not free, may be the best of the ones I found
Mac Gizmo - Says it will show preview of movie files
File Browse - This one gives you a preview of folder contents in 3D without having to open it - will do .mov .html QT and others - looks pretty neat
Phoenix Slides - Still pictures only

Let us know what you find, others will probably be interested also.
 

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