SUGGESTION: Video Thumbnail Options

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   ktrappposted 11 years ago

   I published my first two video hubs last week and am not really satisfied at all with the 4 thumbnail options that have been created for each video during processing.
   
   I can see how I can change the first few seconds of my video to possibly get an acceptable thumbnail, but (and I realize this is probably a really big request)...
   
   ... Would it be possible to let us drag through the video and select the video frame that we want to use as a thumbnail? Or possibly, if we don't like the selection of thumbnails, we could enter the time where the frame appears in order to generate a thumbnail of our choosing.

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   1. 75

      MickiSposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the suggestion, ktrapp. I don't have an answer for you just yet. I need to explore this one a little more to understand how difficult it may be to implement and how it might impact click thru rates.
      
      I promise to get you a better answer as to why/when we could implement this or not. In the meantime, I wanted to let you know that I got the suggestion and I'm investigating.

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      1. 94

         ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I appreciate you looking into this when you get the time. I certainly understand there are higher priority issues to be dealt with, but then again the video thumbnail can probably make or break a Hub's click-through rate from Google.
         
         I appreciate you keeping me posted. - Kristin

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            MickiSposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Quick question, as I don't do video myself: do you think that the thumbnails that we generate are different than you might get from, say, a YouTube?

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            1. 94

               ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I really don't use YouTube but I just ran a test and uploaded  my playdough recipe there since it is also on HubPages, and I would say the three thumbnails from YouTube were significantly better than the four choices from HubPages. Of course that opinion is merely based on this one test. YouTube also allows its Partners (what that is, I don't know) to upload custom thumbnails.

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               1. 75

                  MickiSposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  I've been researching this on our end, and I'm not sure there is anything better that we can do right now. In order to get a better thumbnail, the developers that worked on video tell me they explicitly chose more options for you choose.
                  
                  If you do more video Hubs, and still feel like the thumbnails aren't good, chime in on this thread. I'll also leave it open for other users to comment and read and see if others feel the same.

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                  1. 94

                     ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     Well I certainly appreciate you looking into this for me. Like I said before, it looks as if one of the thumbnail options comes from the first few seconds of video.
                     
                     I will just make sure to include actual video footage of my finished product (not a still photo) in this portion of my video project so a good thumbnail is generated. (FYI - Still photos in a 16:9 video generate thumbnails with wide black edges - not a good look.)
                     
                     Again, I appreciate your time; I'm sure changes to video/thumbnail processing can be quite tedious and time consuming so it's quite understandable that this isn't a high priority
                     
                     But if it ever comes up again, I like the idea of being able to upload a custom thumbnail which probably isn't too difficult from a development perspective. Thanks again.

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