Video thumbnails

You create and define video thumbnails from the advanced settings.
To do this, perform the following:

1. Navigate to Administration » Settings » Advanced.
   
2. In the left pane, expand Libraries » Videos » Thumbnails and click Profiles.
3. Click Create new.
4. In Name, enter a descriptive name for the video thumbnail profile.
   For example, enter Thumbnails: 100 X 100 px
5. In Name, enter the name that will be used in the code to refer to the profile.
   Do not use spaces. For example, enter Thumb100x100
6. In Resize Method, enter one of the following:
   • CropCropArguments
     The thumbnail image will be cropped to area - the original image is cropped from all sides evenly, so that it fits the thumbnail size.
     
   • ResizeFitToAreaArguments
     The thumbnail image is resized to fit the area - when the proportion of the original thumbnail dimensions is different from this of the predefined thumbnail, the images are resized so that the longer side of the image fits the respective side of the thumbnail. Images are aligned up and to the left of the predefined thumbnail.
7. If you want to make this thumbnail default when creating a library, select Marks a profile as a default one when creating a new library.
8. In Convert format, enter the image encoding format that will be used to create the thumbnail images.
   If you do not set this setting, the video thumbnails will be generated as JPEG files.

   NOTE: To see which image formats are supported in your instance of Sitefinity CMS, navigate to Settings » Advanced » Libraries » Images and check the Allowed file extension setting.

9. You can choose which thumbnails to hide or display in specific widgets, using the Tags field.
   For more information, see Limit the visibility of thumbnail profiles.
10. Save your changes.
    The thumbnail profile is created.
11. Define the size of the thumbnail.
    In the left pane, expand the newly created profile and click Parameters and perform one of the following:
    • If in Resize Method, you have entered CropCropArguments, create the following parameters:
      • Height
        In Key, enter Height and in Value, enter the height of the thumbnail in pixels.
        This is the height that the thumbnail will be cropped to.
      • Width
         In Key, enter Width and in Value, enter the width of the thumbnail in pixels.
        This is the width that the thumbnail will be cropped to.
    • If in Resize Method, you have entered ResizeFitToAreaArguments, create the following parameters:
      • Max height
        In Key, enter MaxHeight and in Value, enter the height of the thumbnail in pixels.
        This is the height that the thumbnail will be resizedto.
      • Max width
         In Key, enter MaxWidth and in Value, enter the width of the thumbnail in pixels.
        This is the width that the thumbnail will be resized to.

        NOTE: When the proportion of the original thumbnail dimensions is different from this of the predefined thumbnail, the video thumbnails are resized so that the longer side of the thumbnail fits the respective side of the thumbnail. Images are aligned up and to the left of the predefined thumbnail.

12. Create another parameter for the quality of the thumbnail images.
    In Key enter Quality and in Value, enter the quality of the video thumbnail that you want to generate.
    Enter High, Medium, or Low

RESULT: The video thumbnail profile is created. To generate video thumbnails with the defined parameters, you need to reupload the videos in the library.

EXAMPLE: If you want Library A to have thumbnail profile A, in the Advanced settings, make video thumbnail profile A default. Reupload the videos in Library A. Then, make video thumbnail profile B default and reupload the videos in library B.

You apply a predefined video thumbnail profile via the Video gallery widget.
On the Settings tab, select the desired thumbnail profile.
For more information, see Video gallery widget.

For the thumbnail of a video, you can either upload a custom image, or capture a frame from the video.
You do this in the Videos module.
For more information, see Configure the properties of a video.