Live Photos: Separate real live photos and short videos

[Radiokot]

Describe what problem this solves and why this would be valuable to many users

Historically, "Live" in PhotoPrism meant short videos. But since the support for real live photos was added, this type now contains a mix of videos and JPEGs (HEIFs), which, at least from the gallery perspective, are quite different:

Real live photo:

• Has a high quality still image
• Has image as the primary file
• Better presented in a special viewer which fades between motion and still image parts
• Can be shown in a widget on a home screen
• Can be returned to another Android app asking for images (for example, PhotoPrism Gallery is launched from Gmail or Instagram to pick image/*)

Short video:

• Has low quality still image (first frame)
• Has video as the primary file
• Better presented as a looped video without sound

Currently, I don't see a way to filter search results by a specific type, it is only possible locally by checking what the files of a merged photo are. For example, if an Android app asks for an image (image/*) and the user opens PhotoPrism Gallery to select one, it is not clear whether to allow the user to see "Live" entries in this mode – JPEGs are suitable and desirable while the short videos are not.

Describe the solution you'd like

I think of the following possible solutions:

• Exclude short videos from "Live"
• Add a flag to a merged photo, allowing to determine if it is a real live photo or a short video. Add a search filter by this flag

Describe alternatives you've considered

Local filtering, which is inefficient.

Additional context

Radiokot/photoprism-android-client#182

[lastzero]

In general, this sounds like a good idea. We originally implemented it this way because it was difficult to detect "real" Live Photos, including any custom formats created by Android devices.

Once we have a clear, tested method that works with the available metadata and files, we can adjust the detection logic. For example, Motion Photos won't have a video sidecar file because the video is appended to a JPEG or HEIC file. Also, it's possible that a video belongs to a Live Photo, but the related image file was lost...

Do you have a list of Exif tags or other reliable detection characteristics?

[Radiokot]

Perhaps, already existing flags can be used in a new search filter.
For example, short video lives have non-sidecar file with the following flags:

"FileType": "mp4",
"MediaType": "video",
"Video": true,

While a live photo JPEG has these:

"FileType": "jpg",
"MediaType": "live",
"Video": true,

[lastzero]

See the following function for the currently implemented logic:

photoprism/internal/photoprism/mediafile.go

Lines 1065 to 1076 in 595b116

	// IsLive checks if the file is a live photo.
	func (m *MediaFile) IsLive() bool {
	if m.IsHeic() {
	return fs.VideoMov.FindFirst(m.FileName(), []string{}, Config().OriginalsPath(), false) != ""
	}
	if m.IsVideo() {
	return fs.ImageHeic.FindFirst(m.FileName(), []string{}, Config().OriginalsPath(), false) != ""
	}
	return m.MetaData().MediaType == media.Live && m.VideoInfo().Compatible
	}