Your partner talks over an important scene, the dinner’s burning… There’s always a reason for skipping through video content.
Using thumbnail displays is the ideal way to empower your service users to navigate to the content they want to be watching. Unlike time point references, where it can be difficult for users to gauge where to resume playback, thumbnails provide precise indicators of what frame you are switching to without interrupting the current stream.
This engaging feature is now pre-built into our PRESTOplay suite of video player software development kits (SDKs) for tablets, phones, TVs, desktops, and browsers! Our thumbnail scrubbing is robust, available for use with MEPG-DASH, HLS, and Smooth Streaming content.
How It Works
JPEG thumbnails are pre-generated for a content title, and as the stream begins to play, the images are downloaded to the playback device. We provide four ways to enable thumbnail downloading during playback.
Single Image Thumbnails
A separate .JPG image is used for each thumbnail with configuration in JavaScript. This helps spread the image downloading into smaller chunks during playback.
Grid Image Thumbnails
Multiple thumbnails are stored in single .JPG images with configuration in JavaScript. In this manner, many or all thumbnails are downloaded at once to reduce HTTP/HTTPS requests.
WebVTT Thumbnails
The ‘single’ or ‘grid’ methods above can be used, but are instead configured with the WebVTT format and stored as a .VTT file.
WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000 1_7.jpg#xywh=0,0,262,180 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:20.000 1_7.jpg#xywh=262,0,262,180 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:30.000 1_7.jpg#xywh=524,0,262,180 ...
BIF Thumbnails
All configuration and .JPG thumbnail data is stored in a single BIF (Base Index Frame) file container format. BIF files have the benefit of being streamable allowing individual thumbnail images to become available as the file is loaded via a single HTTP/HTTPS request.
Our range of PRESTOplay SDKs enable you to easily offer advanced app experiences like these across all screens by reducing your development effort. For questions about our video solutions, please contact us at sales@castlabs.com.
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