Use picture for thumbnail

ooo that is difficult to accomplish...
As far as I know, that specific type of thumbnail is encoded directly into your video files. Not all video files have this feature. Most of the time, it is MPEG files that have this feature, not MKV with its H.264. Thus, I do not think, though, I'm not sure, that mkv even supports such a feature, as this is almost exclusively in mpeg and a few other formats. My suggestion would be to either get mpeg copies of such files, or find a splitter for mkv (apparently, vlc didn't load a mkv splitter into directshow to be accessed by other applications, only for vlc itself) that either directshow or windows media foundation can utilize to generate a thumbnail.

Sorry, but in this case, you can either modify the video file and risk losing your data, find copies of these videos in mpeg format, or simply find a mkv splitter that can generate regular thumbnails. (I suggest the Haali splitter as I have used it without issue.)

Do you mean you want the poster or CD cover as the image shown in WMC? If so, get YAMMM! It does it automatically for you... or find the image you want manually and save it as folder.jpg in that movies folder!

globalist3 said:

Thank you all for your contribution.

cclloyd9785 is right. iTunes lets you alter the artwork for the .m4v and .mp4 files for the movies and Windows Explorer picks this up and display the artwork rather than a screenshot as the thumbnail. So mystery solved! It's metadata after all.

So for those, like me, who helplessly searched the Internet for an answer: You can add/change/delete the artwork for M4Vs and MP4s using iTunes. Windows Explorer (at least in Windows 7) displays the iTunes artwork as the file's thumbnail in Explorer.

Now the question is... do I have to convert all my AVIs and MKVs into MP4s or M4Vs for me to be able to get that effect, or can I add artwork as metadata to other video files without using iTunes?

Generally, you cannot convert the avi or mkv to mp4 or m4v without some serious encoding. That equals loss in quality unfortunately. If you search online hard enough though, you can find such freeware programs. You can also use windows live movie maker though I am not sure whether it allows you to convert to mp4.

Another solution is possibly to extract everything out of the mastroka container or the avi container. The container contains the video audio, and subtitle files that are combined into a container in which you play a video in. If you can find a program to extract the H.264 video file, the mp3 audio file, and the .ssa, .ass, etc subtitle file, and find another program somehow that places these three components into a mp4 container, you might get the task completed. Though i know the general concept, i have no experience and cannot recommend to you any programs sorry Im sure the people on this forum though, can.

Here is a screenshot of my movies folder I use with WMC.


If you want this same view, and you dont want to have to download every movie poster or dvd front cover to do so.
Try Yammm (Yet Another Media Meta Manager).
Its just too easy to use and AUTOMATIC.

Yammm runs as a Windows Service and will download meta data, artwork, rename folders, rename files and\or create playlists. Metadata can be any combination of dvdid.xml, mymovies.xml and\or XBMC nfo file. All meta information and artwork is provided via either themoviedb.org or thetvdb.com. If you haven't checked them out please do so and contribute where possible.

The primary reason for creating Yammm was meta manager that runs "headless" without ANY user interaction and used folder.jpg instead of custom artwork locations. This is important to me as I use various HTPC software depending on the situation and development. I also found that most did not match well. Yammm uses various checks other than the provider's score value

Oh yes... these images also show in WMC!!!

Can i embed the cover.jpg or cover.png directly into the movie file though? Also with Yamm, can I edit things like the parental rating and other info? Cause my movies dont have the rating on them.

Edit: And does Yamm make movies show up on my media play that is build into my samsung LED tv?

cclloyd9785 said:

Can i embed the cover.jpg or cover.png directly into the movie file though? Also with Yamm, can I edit things like the parental rating and other info? Cause my movies dont have the rating on them.

Edit: And does Yamm make movies show up on my media play that is build into my samsung LED tv?

YAMM doesnt embed those items it downloads and places them into that movies folder. What format are your movies in?

As for the Samsung tv... I doubt it. Does that TV have a WMC extender built into it? If so, maybe...