I know this is a weird one, but I'm trying to show the first frame as a preview on my videos, which are uploaded via filefield and displayed with views, without auto-buffering.

Until a short time ago I was using autobuffering to display a preview image, but I realized that yesterday alone I pushed 233.4GB of bandwidth because the video is being sent to everyone that visits the page because of autobuffering. Ouch!

So I was wondering if there is a way to show that preview image without killing my bandwidth. I am using views to create a small video player, so I'm doubtful this can be done.

Comments

djudd’s picture

djudd CreditAttribution: djudd commented

Oh, duh, I am using Flowplayer 3.

bbilocura’s picture

bbilocura CreditAttribution: bbilocura commented

djudd,

Wanted to share with you my workflow for getting preview images. I'm using JW FLV Player, but you might be able to adapt it for your needs.

I have a video content type with a filefield called "media" that allows users to upload MP4 video. I also have a second filefield, "thumbnail." Media Mover is able to detect file uploads on the media filefield and, with the help of FFMPEG, grabs a still image 10 seconds into the video. It attaches this generated thumbnail to the "thumbnail" filefield. I'm also using contemplate to make sure that the thumbnail is passed as the preview image (image flashvar) to JW Player.

Now, this thumbnail can also be used with imagecache, so you can even use it e.g. with Views for video indexes.

Hope this helps.