Choosing your thumbnail and poster
Every video has two pictures. The thumbnail is the image on cards, search results and your channel page. The poster is the large image in the player before the video plays. Long Play creates both automatically, and you can choose your own.
Where to find it
Open a video's edit page and choose Thumbnail & poster. You can pick a frame from the video, or upload an image.
Picking a frame
Play or pause the video on the page, step through it a second or a single frame at a time, then choose Use as thumbnail, Use as poster or Use as both. The frame is taken from the video itself, so it is always the right shape.
Uploading an image
Upload a JPEG, PNG or WebP up to 2 MB. It must be the same shape as your video (within 5%) and at least 75% of the recommended size shown on the page, which is 1920 pixels on the long edge. Long Play converts it to a clean JPEG and removes any location or camera data stored inside the file. The same rules apply to thumbnails and posters.
Keeping copies
Long Play keeps everything you choose. Each video can hold up to 12 saved thumbnails and 12 saved posters, counted separately, so 24 in total. Using one picture as both takes one slot in each list. You can switch to any saved image at any time, and delete images you no longer want to free a slot. The image currently in use can't be deleted until you switch to another.
The originals
The first time you open the page, the thumbnail and poster the video already had are kept as its originals. The originals can never be deleted and don't count toward the 12. Revert to original puts them back at any time, for the thumbnail, the poster or both. Your saved images are kept when you revert.
Editing the video resets these
Applying a Video Fix that changes the picture or the timeline (crop, rotate, trim, remove a section, speed change, VFR fix, deinterlace, HDR to SDR, colour correction, noise reduction, stabilization or film restoration), reverting one, or replacing the video removes all saved thumbnails and posters, including the originals, and creates new ones from the edited video. A frame you chose might have been cut, or the shape might have changed, so a fresh start is safest. You are always shown a warning and asked to confirm first.
Audio-only fixes such as A/V sync don't change the picture, so they don't reset anything.
Your choice is protected
Once you choose a thumbnail or poster, Long Play won't replace it when it re-encodes your video for other reasons, such as Quality Optimization or adding the AV1 version. Reverting to the original makes it automatic again.
If something doesn't work, get in touch.