Change Quicktime (.mp4) icon to DVD Covers

[OperationBrian]

Hello everyone, I read the Neowin forums a lot, and I finally decided to register and be part of the community. I have a quick question.

I downloaded Hand Brake to rip my DVDs to my Mac for viewing. The default icon for these ripped movies shows up as a QuickTime .mp4 icon. I know how to change icons (hard drives, folders, etc.) on the Mac (through Get Info > paste icon). I have grabbed the DVD covers from Amazon.com but when I try to do Get Info on the DVD (ripped .mp4 file), I try to paste it and then it shows up as a default png or jpg icon. I know iTunes will add the DVD covers for movies you buy from the store.... how can I add the covers to movies I have ripped from my own DVD collection?

Thanks for the help.

[joyntkid]

First off, welcome to Neowin.

By doing Cmd+I (Get Info) and clicking on the icon in the top left hand corner (it should make it have a blue stroke around it) and then pressing Cmd+V with the image I have just copied, it makes that the icon. Not sure why it's not working for you.

[OperationBrian]

Yes, I know how to do that, like I've said. I used that Cmd+I > Cmd+V (blue icon highlight) to change the icon of the Macintosh HD to a MacBook. When I try to change the icon of the Quicktime file to the DVD cover I got off of Amazon, instead of showing the cover, it shows a standard Preview.app png icon. The cover image must not be in the right icon format or am I missing something? I have been using OS X since 2005 and learned all of these little in's and out's, but this is the first time I have had trouble changing an icon.

[joyntkid]

Is it a jpg? I did that with all mine a while back on my external. The cover may just be too big. Try resizing it first.

The only time i've had trouble was on a network drive, are the movies on a network drive or anything?

[OperationBrian]

No, they are just on my iMac's drive under a folder I called "DVD Movies" I went into view options and turned off "show icon preview" for the entire folder - so now it doesn't show the Quick Look preview, but rather the icon. It is still showing up as a standard Preview.app jpg icon. I tried changing it to 128x173 px, but it still must be too big or the wrong file format.

Anyone have luck using a different way? Thanks.

[joyntkid]

Oh, I remember hearing about a bug about that. The only fix I know is through terminal and would most likely just make the icon a screenshot like default. I can't remember where i saw it, possibly TUAW.

Sorry for the vague help. Actually might just wanna reset your icon cache.

[MasterC]

You probably have to convert the image to an icon. Download an app called Img2Icns. Choose Folder Icon as the format, and it will convert the images into icons that you can copy and paste.

[OperationBrian]

Thanks MasterC, that worked! I knew it had to do something with the file extension because I have gotten many icons from InterfaceLIFT, but I never tried using my own pictures as an icon.

It looks so much better now, thanks again.

[MasterC]

Thanks MasterC, that worked! I knew it had to do something with the file extension because I have gotten many icons from InterfaceLIFT, but I never tried using my own pictures as an icon.

It looks so much better now, thanks again.

You're welcome :) Glad I could help!