Creating video preview thumbnails

ErikV

Newbie Joined: Mar 13, 2020 15:52 Messages: 6 Offline

Solved by

Mar 13, 2020 16:47

Dear people at CyberLink Forum

Let me first tell that I am a newbie to video. As a Teacher I want to produce some education-videos for my website. I can of course shoot mp4 with my digital camera and insert the files on a webpage. This approach is however not preferable. If the video is let's say 20 minutes in duration and the user wants to go quickly through it to find the place, where he/she want to listen. Then it can become quite cumbersome. Then I was inspired by how they do on YouTube. After opening the video, a thumbnail appears, when the cursor is touching the "timeline". That way the user can quickly find the appropriate moment to begin watching the video.

Now, I don't know if these thumbnails have been created as part of the video or they are activated by some html/javascript code on the website? Anyway does PowerDirector have a tool to produce such a video with thumbnails eventually by creating the necessary code for the website?

NB! I know "video preview thumbnails" sometimes also might refer to the process when the user hover over a thumbnail for a video before the video is opened, which can create a short series of thumbnails showing the content of the video. I am however interested in the thumbnails being shown when the video is opened/running and the cursor points on the "timeline".

I hope someone can help clarify something here ...

NB! At the moment I have a license for PwerDirector 15.

Regards,

Erik V.

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Mar 13, 2020 17:23

It would be helpful if you post some links to webpages that have those thumbnails that you are talking about. You can also let us know the hosting websites that have them available.

ErikV

Newbie Joined: Mar 13, 2020 15:52 Messages: 6 Offline

Mar 13, 2020 17:39

Quote It would be helpful if you post some links to webpages that have those thumbnails that you are talking about. You can also let us know the hosting websites that have them available.

Hi Tomasc. Thanks for your quick reaction. I have attached a screen image.

Erik V.


Filename	video_preview.png	Download
Description
Filesize	891 Kbytes
Downloaded:	8 time(s)

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Mar 13, 2020 18:05

Those thumbnails appear on all the videos that I have produced and uploaded to YouTube. Just use YouTube to host your videos.

ErikV

Newbie Joined: Mar 13, 2020 15:52 Messages: 6 Offline

Mar 13, 2020 18:56

Quote Those thumbnails appear on all the videos that I have produced and uploaded to YouTube. Just use YouTube to host your videos.

Yes but I wanted to have those videos on my own homepage. Rights etc. ...
If anybody knows how to produce those thumbnails, I would like to know.

Regards,

Erik V.

PepsiMan

Senior Contributor Location: Clarksville, TN Joined: Dec 29, 2010 01:20 Messages: 1054 Offline

Mar 15, 2020 11:41

like tomasc said the thumbnails are part of the video and can not be recreated seperately; however, you can annotate a time and a description so that your viewers can go directly like so player x 02:34 , player y 05:55 , player z 09:30 etc.

marked times will appear in blue in the description/comment section of the video being played.

happy happy joy joy

PepsiMan
'garbage in garbage out'


Filename	20200315_1042.jpg	Download
Description	time marker
Filesize	714 Kbytes
Downloaded:	3 time(s)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Mar 15. 2020 11:45

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optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Mar 15, 2020 14:15

Quote Now, I don't know if these thumbnails have been created as part of the video or they are activated by some html/javascript code on the website? Anyway does PowerDirector have a tool to produce such a video with thumbnails eventually by creating the necessary code for the website.

The short answer to your questions are that PD's job is to produce your video, and has doesn't have any utility for generating "live" thumbnails; YT does provide that feature as part of their website script.

To do that on your own website, you would need to build or utilize a similar script. If you web page could also accept clicks with an embedded start time, PepsiMans' example would work with text or fixed thumbnails.