Show embedded cover as a thumbnail for videos

Hi, I want to show the embedded cover in MKV files as a thumbnail for the video files, and not some random frame from the video. So how is this possible any idea?

Currently, I have installed ffmpegthumbs but nothing changed, it just picks a random frame. Also tried the ffmpegthumbs-mattepaint but it is not working.

I think you need ffmpegthumbnailer package installed, delete the .thumbnails directory in your home, and let them regenerate.
It contains this in /usr/share/thumbnailers/ffmpegthumbnailer.thumbnailer

[Thumbnailer Entry]
TryExec=ffmpegthumbnailer
Exec=ffmpegthumbnailer -i %i -o %o -s %s -f
MimeType=video/jpeg;video/mp4;video/mpeg;video/quicktime;video/x-ms-asf;video/x-ms-wm;video/x-ms-wmv;video/x-ms-asx;video/x-ms-wmx;video/x-ms-wvx;video/x-msvideo;video/x-flv;video/x-matroska;application/mxf;video/3gp;video/3gpp;video/dv;video/divx;video/fli;video/flv;video/mp2t;video/mp4v-es;video/msvideo;video/ogg;video/vivo;video/vnd.divx;video/vnd.mpegurl;video/vnd.rn-realvideo;application/vnd.rn-realmedia;video/vnd.vivo;video/webm;video/x-anim;video/x-avi;video/x-flc;video/x-fli;video/x-flic;video/x-m4v;video/x-mpeg;video/x-mpeg2;video/x-nsv;video/x-ogm+ogg;video/x-theora+ogg

so it should do what you want.

I think that you already discovered that the ffmpegthumbnailer will create it’s own thumbnail from the video content,
only the place in the movie where the thumbnail is taken from is configurable
via the -t option

A way towards finding a solution would perhaps be:
how do you determine whether there is an embedded cover (or not) in a specific file?
how do you know/test for it?
and how do you display it once you know?

ps
oh, no - I just saw it:
there is the -m option to ffmpegthumbnailer
from man ffmpegthumbnailer:

-m : prefer embedded image metadata over video content

not really sure, but using this in the file that @bogdancovaciu suggested should do it - at least it sounds like it should

This is my configuration file for the /usr/share/thumbnailers/ffmpegthumbnailer.thumbnailer but still embedded covers are not showing:

[Thumbnailer Entry]
TryExec=ffmpegthumbnailer
Exec=ffmpegthumbnailer -i %i -o %o -s 0 -f -m
MimeType=video/jpeg;video/mp4;video/mpeg;video/quicktime;video/x-ms-asf;video/x-ms-wm;video/x-ms-wmv;video/x-ms-asx;video/x-ms-wmx;video/x-ms-wvx;video/x-msvideo;video/x-flv;video/x-matroska;application/x-matroska;application/mxf;video/3gp;video/3gpp;video/dv;video/divx;video/fli;video/flv;video/mp2t;video/mp4v-es;video/msvideo;video/ogg;video/vivo;video/vnd.divx;video/vnd.mpegurl;video/vnd.rn-realvideo;application/vnd.rn-realmedia;video/vnd.vivo;video/webm;video/x-anim;video/x-avi;video/x-flc;video/x-fli;video/x-flic;video/x-m4v;video/x-mpeg;video/x-mpeg2;video/x-nsv;video/x-ogm+ogg;video/x-theora+ogg;audio/flac;audio/mpeg

And do we have to activate it somehow which I’m forgetting?

… eight months later :wink:

I don’t know about
embedded covers
Where are they stored and how are they accessible?


The thumbnailer creates it’s own pictures from the content of the video.
If you don’t like the default choice
you can define a different frame (timestamp)
where the thumbnail is taken from.