Create video thumbnail using ffmpeg/mplayer

Create thumbnail with ffmpeg

To create thumbnail from video using ffmpeg, use

ffmpeg -y -ss HH:MM:SS -i VIDEO.AVI -f image2 -vframes 1 1.jpg

Here

HH:MM:SS = replace with time where you want to take screen shot.

1.jpg = is the tumbnail image generated.

Create thumbnail with mplayer

METHOD 1

mkdir out
mplayer VIDEO.AVI -ss 0:8:0 -nosound -vo jpeg:outdir=out -frames 2

-ss = you can specify time in seconds or in hh:mm:ss format.

-frames 2 = create 2 thumbnails with name 00000001.jpg and 00000002.jpg

-ss 0:8:0 = thumbnail from 8th minutes

METHOD 2

mencoder -ss 00:25:00 -endpos 0.001 -ovc copy -nosound VIDEO.AVI -o tmpfile1
mplayer -nosound -vo jpeg tmpfile1

Create thumbnail with avconv

avconv -ss 00:01:00 -i VIDEO_FILE.mp4 -f image2 -frames:v 1 1.jpeg

This will create thumbnail 1.jpeg from video.

-ss 00:01:00 – Time from where image is taken.

See ffmpeg