thumbnails for video files in windows XP

[Guest]

It's always bugged me how Windows XP selects the first frame of a video file
to use as the thumbnail for that file. Often times, that first frame is
black, or doesnt represent the video well, which defeats the whole purpose of
a thumbnail. I remember that in programs such as Nero, when a thumbnail will
be used, it lets you pick which frame of the video you want used. What I want
to know is, is there any way -- settings, tweaks, third-party software, etc.
-- that I can change the thumbnail used for a video file? Even if the
solution involves me getting screen grabs myself and setting them somehow as
the thumb, I still prefer that to looking at a folder full of black
rectangles.

 

[Rehan]

Solutions in increasing technical-knowhow order:

1. You can edit your videos in Movie Maker to capture one (or more)
represetative frame(s) and put it in the beginning as a title frame. If you
capture more than one frames, use external editor to make a collage of
those...

If it feels too tedious, you can write a script to do that to all files in
the folder using AviSynth.

Otherwise if you are a programmer you can create a custom thumbnail plugin
for avi/wmv files, which will be used by windows explorer to generate
thumbnails. for an example project/source code, see here:

http://greggman.com/pages/thumbplug_tga.htm

 

[Guest]

I just updated medi player to version 9 and when I tryed to play this is
your day on a Benny Hinn program it told me there was an error

 

[Guest]

i used to have the first frame showing as a thumbnail but all of a sudden all
i get is a movie clip icon. I have checked all the settings but can not see
anything that looks out of place. anyone know how i can get this to change
back. it is really frustrating to have to open every clip to see what is on
it. Thanks Twodeezz