HEIC Support?

The best solution for finding and removing duplicate files.
kpolleck
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 7:34 pm

HEIC Support?

Post by kpolleck »

Do you have any plans to support HEIC files? I have what I think are the same files in JPG and HEIC formats, and I want to know that they match.
User avatar
DigitalVolcano
Site Admin
Posts: 1717
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:04 am

Re: HEIC Support?

Post by DigitalVolcano »

This is something we are currently looking into. HEIC support is fairly new to Windows so we're still researching a suitable way to incorporate this format into Duplicate Cleaner Image mode. Of course you can still find exact file HEIC duplicates using Regular Mode.
kpolleck
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 7:34 pm

Re: HEIC Support?

Post by kpolleck »

Thanks for looking into HEIC. Having this is critically important to why I bought Duplicate Cleaner to begin with. I want to compare iCloud (which, oddly, gets downloaded to Windows as JPG files) to other copies of the photos (in various places--Google Photo, Dropbox, etc.) When the original iDevice photos were jpg, these could be compared as files (vs. as images). Now that they are in different formats, I need to be able to compare them as images.

I could set my phone just to save the files as JPG, but that takes up more space on a limited-space device.

Thanks!
Jamison
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2019 6:20 pm

Re: HEIC Support?

Post by Jamison »

I just had many duplicate HEIC files show up in my results for 95% (other HEIC's only), but my issue is that the preview pane doesn’t work with them - I do have the codec installed (I think I paid $.99) for it. IS there a way to make that work?

Thanks.
User avatar
DigitalVolcano
Site Admin
Posts: 1717
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:04 am

Re: HEIC Support?

Post by DigitalVolcano »

Sorry, no preview for HEIC as of v3.1.1. You'd have to double-click on the file to view it in an external viewer.
kpolleck
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 7:34 pm

Re: HEIC Support?

Post by kpolleck »

Wondering...is there a roadmap for when you might support HEIC (i.e. comparing them to JPG?) I know you cannot promise things, but is this on the roadmap? If not with some degree of confidence, I'm going to search for a different solution.

Ken
User avatar
DigitalVolcano
Site Admin
Posts: 1717
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:04 am

Re: HEIC Support?

Post by DigitalVolcano »

It's on the wishlist for version 5, but the format is fairly new to Windows and appears to be encumbered by patents. After more investigation I can't promise to add it until the situation becomes clearer. So, I don't predict support for heic this year.
kpolleck
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 7:34 pm

Re: HEIC Support?

Post by kpolleck »

Any outlook / update on this?

Here's an idea for you, since there are various third-party converters of HEIC to JPG: Allow a plug-in to pre-process a file before you do the comparison, but save the analysis as if it was from the original file.

What the pre-processor does would be out of your responsibility for any patents.

For example, let's say I configure a preprocessor for an HEIC file, and you encounter an HEIC file...
1) You would invoke the preprocessor passing the file location.
2) The preprocessor would create a new temp file at a specific location.
3) You would then run your statistics/analysis on that new temp file.
4) You would store, for later comparison, the statistics of the new file. (...or maybe just the image data. Perhaps the preprocessor configuration would be allow users to specify which data (like date/time) to use from the original file vs. the preprocessed file (like the image statistics).

By the, I've tried to write something like this. That is, I batch converted all HEIC files in a directory to a "parallel" directory of JPG files. I then used Duplicate Cleaner to compare the two directories. (In my case, Dropbox, which has JPG Camera Uploads, and Google or iCloud, which have the HEIC versions.) Then, I compare the original directory with the parallel directory, any files that don't have an analogous partner are deleted. It just seems like that sort of logic could be incorporated into your program.
User avatar
DigitalVolcano
Site Admin
Posts: 1717
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:04 am

Re: HEIC Support?

Post by DigitalVolcano »

Thanks for the process idea. I'm pleased to say that HEIC is supported in version 5.0 (at least on Windows 10). Can't give a release date yet though...
kpolleck
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 7:34 pm

Re: HEIC Support?

Post by kpolleck »

Are you any closer to announcing a release date for Duplicate Cleaner 5.0?
Post Reply