Manipulating YouTube Thumbnail (Poster Frame)

This is a nice blog Squidoo post about changing the “poster frame” of a YouTube video. I call them thumbnails, but poster frame works.  The Cro used my video to show how you can see the thumbnails on a video, and generate a higher resolution one by changing some digits in the URL.

Recently YouTube made a change so that if it finds a still image in the frames surrounding the center frame it will choose an alternative one. This can be addressed by giving your center-frame image a “zoom effect.”

I actually work hard to ensure that my center frame is representative of the video since I know how important that thumbnail is to views. It’s a shame YouTube doesn’t allow creators to select their frame like Revver and Metacafe facilitate.

14 thoughts on “Manipulating YouTube Thumbnail (Poster Frame)”

  1. I noticed that my mid clip image is always out, my theory is that Youtube uses a generic 30 frame per second encoder, so us UK Youtubers who use 25 frames per sec would have to convert it to 30 frames BEFORE you upload your vid then check to see what your middle image is going to be (if this is important to you) also I noticed on some my animation stuff the audio is out of sync so you have to advance the sound by 6 frames to sync it to Youtube.

  2. yup that sucks! i have some videos ive uploaded 6 or 7 times on youtube,just to get a decent thumbnail! I just leave em all on there,to get more views

  3. Morning campers. YouTube has just “permanently suspended” my account “Wallyworld”. Why? Because I just uploaded a French PSA risqué animation for AIDS. But I have another account (unless they pull that down too). Fucking wowsers! See me at “Mylifeasavlog” at YouTube. Or email me if you like. It’s been fun. After 1.4 Million views of my (sometimes naughty) videos.

  4. Do you know what a pain in the butt you are, sometimes, Malkie? Now I’ve got to go all through my blog and delete all my posts that have your videos embedded in them. I guess this means you’ll be going back to Revver?

  5. I think it’s the old “three strikes and you’re out” rule. But you get no warning. I would have called for “The cone of silence” so we could discuss it like rational human beans but no…just the Gestapo at the door with the arrest warrant. Still think that AIDS video is one of the best I’ve posted. 1.4 Million views of my vids on YouTube and not one cent. Meanwhile they have “Mr Safety”, Renetto, Blunty, Digital Asshole etc as their “partners”. Good luck to them. May they crash and burn.

  6. Sorry to go on about this but…I just discovered that the very same video they canned my ass for has been up on YouTube for the PAST YEAR!? Here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC8Xxmsbgj0

    They really are something are they not? And of course you get no redress contacting them. I get a different person (robot?) every time replying with “Hi there….”. Great Customer Relations YouTube. Truly brilliant.

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