YouTube Help Required!

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[lummas]

Hi All,

I have a question.  I have recently been uploading video files to YouTube.  They upload fine and play fine.  What I have noticed though, is that if I then embed these videos in to a web page, then the image (video thumbnail) that shows up on the image that you see when you load the page, is not the 1st frame of the video or even the last, it seems to be a random point somewhere in the video.

Here is an example:

http://www.paiwhq.com/test

If you go there you will see the image shows a scene in the video, but if you hit play, you will see the video then opens with a completely different frame.

For the purpose of embedding these in to my work website, I need to control the image initially displayed on the page.  I cannot find how you control that.

Can any of you out there help with useful advice please?

Thanks,

Mark
Team Too Much Fun
http://www.lummas.com/Too_Much_Fun/too_much_fun.html

[Kitelife]

Once the video is fully processed, and you go in to "edit" the video via your YouTube account, you're presented with your choice of THREE screencaps that are selected by some standard of their own.

Alas, I've not yet found a way to specify a point in time for that image.

[lummas]

Thanks for the reply John.  I have searched and searched and I believe there is no way round this, whcih is very dissapointing from a business standpoint.

But thanks for the feedback.

Mark

[JimB]

Would it not be possible to edit your video in such a way as to have the frame you want as the frontispiece at the beginning multiple times.. just edit that frame in as many times as it takes to get it to come up where you want it.. perhaps I am missing something? 

[benjai]

Or use Vimeo, which gives you about 9 options as the thumbnail frame, or the choice to upload something completely different that isn't even in the video. Example below, the thumbnail (shown first) is a still photo taken on the day the video was shot, and isn't a frame from the video, and the opening screen for the video (placeholder if you like) is the same thumbnail at high resolution...

Hope it helps

Thumbnail




Directly embedded video

http://vimeo.com/5479242

[lummas]

Thanks so much for your input.  Vieo does offer more flexibility but Youtube offers so much more exposure that my boss is keen to use that unfortunately.

Mark.

[benjai]

OK, fair enough... I did a quick search though as you piqued my interest. It turns out that YooToob has no facility for choosing the thumbnail, so your only chance is to include the thumbnail you want within the video at several points and move them around until YT picks that frame. Might take a while, and it'll make your video look crap, but at least you'll have the right thumbnail!!!

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