Been Waiting For Years for: CHANGE/CHOOSE VIDEO THUMBNAIL

[kengarris]

It doesn't have to be complicated, just an option to "SELECT" a photo to use for the video thumbnail.  Right now we have to depend totally on Windows to choose a thumbnail, or use custom "outside iMatch" software, and i takes time, lots of it..  Since iMatch NOW handles video files SO WONDERFULLY, the only thing it is missing is what to me is most important-- we all must see the thumbnails...   Just allow the user to right click and select an alternate thumbnail image.   I think this would even be useful for photos, but of course not necessary... But it surely is necessary for videos, and I am surprised it has never been addressed- as it is so basic and MUCH needed for anyone who handles videos in iMatch.
THANKS!  and I'd like to say iMatch is the best hands-down, and I've tried them all.
- Ken

[Mario]

IMatch produces thumbnails for most video files using built-in services provided by Windows. See also my other posts from the past few days for reasons.
Windows does not allow me to choose the frame to use for the thumbnail.

You can export the frame you want to use in your favorite video editor and save it a s JPEG/PNG whatever in the same folder as the video file, or a sub-folder. Using the IMatch 5 versioning concept you can then make this file the visual proxy for the video.
This not only allows you to choose the frame you like, but also produce a full-size image (even HD) and use that for all display purposes in IMatch.

I've also seen users producing animated GIF files from their videos (covering maybe one image for every 10 seconds or minute in the original video). They use that as the visual proxy and now have proper thumbnails in IMatch, a large file to look at in the Viewer and Quick Preview Panel. And they can even play the GIF file to see a preview of the video file in the IMatch 5 App Panel using the GIF App I provide.

To allow users to choose a frame, to extract full-size frames from videos etc. is on my to-do-list. As I pointed out in the other video-related topics from the past couple of days, this is not only a technical challenge but also a legal one. Videos are covered in patents. In fact there are so many patents involved in playing a video that an organization has been founded to manage the patents and to issue licenses for using these patents to software producers.

Licenses to play (some formats of) videos are available for free for open source software. IMatch is not open source and not free. It is considered commercial and I need to check if and how much money I would have to pay for each IMatch user in order to supply video rendering, thumbnail extraction and the like. If this is so complicate that I need to hire a lawyer just to understand the license contracts or too expensive for a one-person company like me, we'll have to use external video players like QuickTime, VLC or MediaPlayer.

[kengarris]

Thanks Mario for the reply.  I did read BEFORE I originally posted your remarks about "visual proxy for the video", but using iMatch5 I wasn't able to do it.  I assume you place a .jpg photo in the same folder and assign it somehow?  Right-click on the video?  I'm aware of the complexities involved in selecting a frame inside of iMatch-- that is why I was just asking about SOME WAY of "quickly and easily" selecting a jpg to use as the thumbnail.  In iMatch4 there is an option when you right-click for "thumbnail" and there are options to rotate the image,etc.-- I always thought there would be an excellent place to have had an option to "use alternate photo as thumbnail".    But I don't even see that "thumbnail menu" on iMatch5. Also, I realize that if a user did a "rescan folder" they would have(should be) warned that alternate thumbnails would be lost(or given option to keep existing alternate thumbnails).  FINAL THOUGHT:  As you have so many "feature requests" to work on, this option would certainly satisfy anyone "NEEDING" the option to change a thumbnail quickly since every good video player can extract a snapshot effortlessly. This would be a quick method of giving users the ability to change that thumbnail.  If the "visual proxy for the video" solves this, please just explain how it is used-- and where to save the .jpg.   Does the jpg have to be kept? or does it save in the thumbnail file?  Thanks for your efforts!
-Ken Garris

[jch2103]

I assume you place a .jpg photo in the same folder and assign it somehow?  Right-click on the video? 

See IMatch Help: Versioning

[Mario]

If you have not used file relations yet, read the corresponding help topic.

Basically you make the JPEG (or whatever file format you use) a version of the video file. When you enable the visual proxy option for the version, IMatch will automatically use the JPEG file to represent the video (thumbnail, Quick Preview, Viewer, Slide Show, ...)

There are many examples in the help so I don't need to go into details here. Let us know if you have problems with this feature.