Living Images - won't play without "show as a living image" setting

[chancooluk]

I've noticed an odd thing about my Lumia's running W10M. All are set to capture "Living Images", and it seems that the handsets are capturing the Living Images 100% of the time, but the majority of the photos don't actually play the living image in the W10M Photos app.

I transferred the jpg files over to a laptop and opened each of them as an archive in 7zip. Every one of the jpg files includes a living.mp4 file embedded into it. In the W10 desktop Photos app there is an option in that app to switch on the living image file "Show as a living image". Once that option has been set in the desktop Photos app, the Living Image will play as expected, and will also play on a Lumia (in the W10M Photos app) when transferred back over.

This raises a few questions for me:

1. Why does the camera app set some photos as "still image only" to prevent the Living Image mp4 file from playing? Why does it even bother to embed the mp4 into the jpg if it then decides to prevent it from playing?

2. In the W10 desktop Photos app, setting the jpg as "Show as a Living Image" or "Show as a still image" modifies the jpg file in some way, but I can't tell what has been modified. The EXIF data remains the same, and the embedded files (the .xml and .mp4) remain unmodified. What is it in the jpg file that tells the Photos app to play the Living Image?

3. Why is the "Show as a living image" option missing from the Mobile app? Is there a way to force a living image to play in the mobile Photos app?

 

[anthonyng]

Take note that living images are only taken if the camera detects motion.

 

[Kimmo Toivanen]

Take note that living images are only taken if the camera detects motion.

If camera does not detect motion, it will not capture and embed video part. Many images do have video (proof: file size, file content) but they do not play.

In phone, only way might be using Lumia Creative Studio Beta.

The reason for living image not showing live is crappy camera software. It could be something in "main" image metadata, caused by wrong processing of the picture elements or something. Saving images to internal memory, allowing camera to run in background, giving camera enough time between shots to finish the processing may or may not help.
Another bug is rich capturing, sometimes it saves 1280x800 images (depending in you screen size) and often flash intensity is the only thing you can alter afterwards (not sure if this has been fixed recently).

Nokia created these things and MS made them "better" :devil:

About #2: If you copy this "live enabled" image to another W10 PC or back to the phone, does it play then? Does the date of the image change? Photos app on PC could just make note to self that the image should be live.

 

[chancooluk]

I
About #2: If you copy this "live enabled" image to another W10 PC or back to the phone, does it play then? Does the date of the image change? Photos app on PC could just make note to self that the image should be live.

Yes, after the image has been set as "Show as a Living Image" on PC it will then play as expected on the Mobile app.

I've found what it changes in the file to disable or enable the living image. I opened the jpg files as text in notepad. The files that do not play the living.mp4 have a line of code that includes "Lumia.LivingImage.Disabled". Whereas on the files that have been set to "Show as a Living Image" it is simply "Lumia.LivingImage". I've put an example of a "Disabled" line of code at the bottom of this post.

I have over 200 photos that include the living.mp4, but are set by the camera app as "Disabled". That's around 300-400MB of wasted space!


<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x="adobe:ns:meta/"><rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:xmp="http://ns.adobe.com/xmp/"><rdfescription xmlns:Lumia="Lumia:ns:imaging/1.0/" xmlns:MicrosoftPhoto="http://ns.microsoft.com/photo/1.0/" rdf:about="" xmlns:mwg-rs="http://www.metadataworkinggroup.com/schemas/regions/" xmlns:stArea="http://ns.adobe.com/xmp/sType/Area#" xmlns:stDim="http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/sType/Dimensions#"><MicrosoftPhoto:ItemSubType>Lumia.LivingImage.Disabled</MicrosoftPhoto:ItemSubType></rdfescription><rdfescription xmlns:Lumia="Lumia:ns:imaging/1.0/" xmlns:MicrosoftPhoto="http://ns.microsoft.com/photo/1.0/" rdf:about="" xmlns:mwg-rs="http://www.metadataworkinggroup.com/schemas/regions/" xmlns:stArea="http://ns.adobe.com/xmp/sType/Area#" xmlns:stDim="http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/sType/Dimensions#"><MicrosoftPhoto:CreatorAppId>{2d7e7fd6-2942-4d77-9842-389c3f62b14d}</MicrosoftPhoto:CreatorAppId><MicrosoftPhoto:CreatorOpenWithUIOptions>1</MicrosoftPhoto:CreatorOpenWithUIOptions><mwg-rs:Regions rdfarseType="Resource"><mwg-rs:AppliedToDimensions stDim:h="1456" stDim:unit="pixel" stDim:w="2592"/><mwg-rs:RegionList><rdf:Bag><rdf:li rdfarseType="Resource"><mwg-rs:Title>LumiaOriginalROI</mwg-rs:Title><mwg-rs:Area rdfarseType="Resource"><stArea:x>0.500000</stArea:x><stArea:y>0.500000</stArea:y><stArea:w>1.000000</stArea:w><stArea:h>1.000000</stArea:h><stArea:unit>normalized</stArea:unit></mwg-rs:Area></rdf:li></rdf:Bag></mwg-rs:RegionList></mwg-rs:Regions><Lumia:SharpeningStrength>16778501</Lumia:SharpeningStrength></rdfescription></rdf:RDF></x:xmpmeta>

 

[Kimmo Toivanen]

"Lumia.LivingImage.Disabled". Whereas on the files that have been set to "Show as a Living Image" it is simply "Lumia.LivingImage"

I was looking for this Lumia.LivingImage property, when I tried to convert WP8.1 living images to W10 format. Taking elements from working living image -> result is alive. Taking elements from WP8.1 living image or dead W10 living image -> patient did not survive. At that time I used Gimp (I know, too hacky) to set/add the property, but it did not work. Maybe it's time to restart Visual Studio and find a way to edit exif metadata

In light of this information, it is possible that anthonyng was right - video could be embedded always (when living images is enabled) and exif setting is based on movement in the image.

Maybe it is time to update to W10 if there is new firmware for 640 after all