v1.2.0 - Native Video Player, Auto-Updater & Installer

🚀 Release v1.2.0

This major update introduces a native video engine, automatic updates, and a professional Windows installer.

✨ New Features

• Native Video Player (VLC): Replaced the old video engine with VLC Media Player embedding. This provides smooth, hardware-accelerated playback with audio support directly inside the preview window.
• Auto-Updater: The application now automatically checks for updates on startup. It can download and install updates for itself (works for both the Python script and the standalone EXE).
• Persistent Settings: User preferences (Download path, Auto-load toggle, Folder structure) are now saved to settings.json and restored on launch.
• GIF Support: Added a proper animation loop for GIF previews using Pillow.
• Windows Installer: Now available as a standard setup file (.exe) that creates Start Menu shortcuts and allows for easy uninstallation.
• Modern UI: Switched to ttkbootstrap (Flatly theme) for a clean look. Added file size indicators to the download button and keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+A / Ctrl+D).

📦 Downloads

• 4chan_Media_Scraper_Setup_v1.2.0.exe (Recommended): Standard Windows Installer.
• 4chan-Media_Scraper.exe: Portable standalone version (no install required).
• 4chan-Media-Scraper-Source-v1.2.0.zip: Raw Python source files for manual execution.

⚠️ Note on Antivirus

Because this is an open-source tool without a paid digital signature, Windows Defender or SmartScreen might flag the installer/exe as "Unknown" or "False Positive". This is normal for community tools built with Nuitka/PyInstaller. You can safely click "Run Anyway" or run the Python source code directly.

v1.0.0

🚀 Initial Release (v1.0.0)

This is the first stable release of the 4chan Media Scraper, featuring a fully native GUI and asynchronous downloading capabilities.

✨ Key Features

• Native GUI: A responsive desktop interface built with tkinter.
• Asynchronous Engine: Powered by aiohttp to download multiple images simultaneously without blocking the UI.
• Visual Grid: View thumbnails of all media in a thread before downloading.
• Full-Resolution Previews: Right-click any thumbnail to open a dedicated preview window to inspect quality.
• Smart Selection:
  • Left-click to toggle individual images.
  • "Select All" / "Deselect All" buttons for bulk actions.
  • Toggle selection directly from the preview window.
• Clipboard Tools:
  • Right-click the URL bar to Paste.
  • Auto-load: Optionally load threads immediately upon pasting a URL.
• Directory Management: Choose to save files in thread-specific folders or flatten them into a single directory.
• Windows Launcher: Includes run_scraper.bat for automatic dependency installation and launch.

📦 Dependencies

• Python 3.7+
• aiohttp
• Pillow

🔧 Installation & Usage

Windows Users:
Simply download the source code and double-click run_scraper.bat.

Advanced/Linux:

pip install -r requirements.txt
python chan_scraper.py