Ithmb Converter [Full Version]
Ivy Auteri
Need help converting the ipod ithmb files to normal images. A customer has lost their ipod and the only copy the photos they have is in the ipod cache on the computer, but despite dong a lot of looking the only software I have found that will do the job is MAC only. Does anyone know a windows equivalent of File Juicer?
echoone.com/filejuicer/ReadMe
Steve the (original) name pirate
Do you still have the "Photo Database" file?
Yes I have the entire cache with the same structure, however there seems no way to open them on a PC. I have looked the adobe software, that is also designed for downloading the images from the iPod and will only work if the iPod is attached. The entire photo cache is just over 2gb in size. I don't know what apple thought they were doing with this structure and format.
Steve the (original) name pirate
I notice the various software sees the iPod as, for example, H: with the structure as defined above located in a "Photos" directory. I might try and stick the stuff I have onto a USB drive and see if I can trick one of them into thinking it's a Pod.
I'm thinking the software would change the iPod to "Disk Mode". I'm also hoping that if the correct directory structure(s) is(are) present then one of them might be forgiving (or stupid) enough to get at the data.
Anyway, it's just a hypothesis at the moment and a bit of fun for me :)
[edit2: From scouring the 'net, I've found that other possible Dimensions are 176x220, 130x88, 41x30 - the file size of the ithmb will give a clue to what is required]
Interesting. Just for info the .ithmb store several different versions of the picture, a thumbnail version, another smaller version and a full sized version, so theseare probably the multiple images you are seeing. I will try converting one to .RAW and using my photo software.
Steve the (original) name pirate
Just for info the .ithmb store several different versions of the picture, a thumbnail version, another smaller version and a full sized version, so theseare probably the multiple images you are seeing.
I just knew you were going to mention that :
So far I think I've been using ithmb's with a single image... But I've managed to find something that will import the ithmb with the correct YUV colour space. It is called Imagemagick.
I had to change the .ithmb file extension to a .uyvy file extension. The command line I used to output to a PNG file is (all on one line with the source file in the same directory) :
convert -size 720x480 -depth 16 -sampling-factor 4:2:2 T114.uyvy Test.png
From these ithmbs I've been able to ascertain what the format of the (single picture) files are. I believe the two images I've been seeing, one on top of the other, are Apple's attempt to change the RAW format. The top and bottom images must be interleaved to create the correct image and corrects the viewing aspect. That's the reason the images looked stretched: the 720x480 images are split into 2 of 720x240 images.
Now I've just got to find a way to interleave these two images to create the correct picture. Then I'll move on to multi-image ithmbs...
[edit: Here's where I'm up to at the moment]
[edit2: Here's where the original file that I used is located]
Very good so far, a smiley face to you.
I managed to get some image output from my photo software but it wasn't anywhere near as good as yours, and ended up with 6 identical images, or two VERY squished images and half a picture of garbage. Will test your method now.
Steve the (original) name pirate
I'm still having trouble finding something that will split the picture into two pieces and then rejoin them by interleaving one line at a time from each of the pieces.
It's starting to look like I'll need to write some custom code. I was hoping to avoid that - been a while since I've done that. Still, I've been looking for challenge like this so I might just do it ;)
[edit: By the way, if you install the binary for Imagemagick, you may get what appears to be a failed install. It still seems to work though]
[edit: By the way, if you install the binary for Imagemagick, you may get what appears to be a failed install. It still seems to work though]
Worked fine on mine, but I used the X64 binary, it maybe an issue with the 32bit ninary only.
Steve the (original) name pirate
I believe ancilliary information for the .ithmb files is actually stored in the file called "photo database" in the root folder of the "iPod photo cache". The "photo databse" has names and other information pertaining to the .ithmb files such as file and folder names and whether or not the pictures/folder have been synced with the PC/MAC.
In the iPod cache each .ithmb file is exactly the same size (794,040 bytes), which would indicate that the files are stored in some sort of either uncompressed or lossless compression format, more likely uncompressed. That fits in with my research that indicates that the large pictures are actually stored in a .tiff format.
nd all image data is stored sequentially with no spacing so recovering each successive image will require determining the dimensions and colour depth of the preceding images and therefore size, then ignoring that information.
Which makes this part relatively easy since every .ithmb should be storing the image data at exactly the same offset from the beginning of the file, analyse one and that will be the same for all of them.
Steve the (original) name pirate
I was bored and started playing with the sample you are working with Anywho and found that it is made up of four different sized thumbnail? images.
Excellent! Thank you! I thought it was just one thumbnail. That cuts down the workload a bit ;)
I see you got the colour space problem with Photoshop too. It's unfortunate that Photoshop doesn't have a 4:2:2 YUV format for RAW. I will run those examples you mention (dimensions) through ImageMagick and see if it gives the correct colour/image.
The only one that is bothering me (at the moment) is the 720x480 one - it is split into two halves and needs to be interleaved as I mentioned before. Each half looks the same, but there are subtle differences between them which makes me think it needs to be interleaved. Otherwise, I'd just stretch each half vertically and blend the two.
Thanks again matey :)
[edit: I can't get the colour or images in anything but 720x480 with ImageMagick :( ]
I still haven't found an easy way to interlace the image to create the correct view.
Well I couldn't find a program to do what I wanted, so I've made one. The program extracts the 720x480 image out of the .ithmb file, interlaces it, and outputs the result to a YUV 4:2:2 file. You still need ImageMagick to do the conversion to something more manageable (like PNG). It's still a little rough programming-wise at the moment but usable. See here for the result.
I'll do some more to the program so that it extracts all the images out of the .ithmb so that they can be converted with a combination of ImageMagick and IrfanView.
Oh yes, the command line program you may be able to use is called Nconvert
LOL! I downloaded that this afternoon... I'll have to read the docs some more but a preliminary scan of the docs shows that I can't specify the colourspace for the RGB as 5:6:5. I also downloaded it's sister program, XnView, it shows the YUV perfectly.
I'll upload the extractor I made somewhere for you to have a play with it. It's a command-line program (win32). I just cobbled/brute-forced it together in reasonably portable 'C' (so Linux users might be interested in it to). If anyone wants the source code just whim me.
BBS...
I don't believe it! There's not a program out there I can find that will do the proper conversion for the format of those RAW (RGB 16bit 5:6:5) files from a command line. I thought IrfanView would do it, but it only does it from it's GUI - you can't specify the format from the command-line. :(
Looks like I'll have to do some more programming and convert the colourspace of those RAW files to YUV so that either ImageMagick or XnView can be used. I'll have a go after work tomorrow. ;)
Well I've practically finished the program. It extracts all the images out of a (4G) ithmb file and spits out PPM (Portable Pixel Map) files for each image the ithmb file contains. If you want it, or the 'C' source code, post a reply here or whim me ;)
If you want it, or the 'C' source code, post a reply here or whim me ;)
You're a genius, would love it. Would you be averse to it being released publicly? During my hunt for one previouisly al I came across on forums were people complaining about not being able to do it on PC.
Steve the (original) name pirate
would love it.
I've uploaded it here.
(Do you know of any other fileshare (free) services? quicksharing.com can be really slow sometimes)
Would you be averse to it being released publicly?
No, I don't mind ;) I'll clean it up some more though with a couple of needed features before I release it widely (including source code). It also wouldn't take much to port to other OS's.
During my hunt for one previouisly al I came across on forums were people complaining about not being able to do it on PC.
Yeah, I noticed that too.
[edit: Fixed URL]
(Do you know of any other fileshare (free) services? quicksharing.com can be really slow sometimes)
Rapidshare is very popular and usually always quite fast, megaupload is popular but very slow sometimes, there are a few otheres but they are the major players.
Steve the (original) name pirate
P.S. tested and ran perfectly