Thumbnail display of FLV files

Normally .flv files display the icon of the default application which opens them not a thumbnail of the contents, a bit like text documents.

In general the "thumbnail" for an flv is the first frame. If you have some blank frames at the beginning, that's what you are seeing.
If you want an icon instead, you must choose a default app and check the box that says to use that app on all flv files. If, for example, you choose VLC, then you will see the VLC cone as the icon.

If you can find a Quicktime codec for FLV files, you should see thumbnail previews.

See also:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8465150

After installing the codec and testing that it plays in Quicktime: If you have changed the application for FLV files to e.g. VLC, you might want to change it back to Preview, otherwise Finder can decide not to generate thumbnails.

crsrusl wrote:
Ideally, I would like my FLV files to display thumbnails like my other movies. Is there no way to do this?

What kind of thumbnail are you referring to? Do you mean the icon that represents the default player?
That's not a thumbnail, it's an icon.
A thumbnail is actually what .flv shows - the first frame of the movie. Thumbnails are usually for images such as jpgs etc.
If you just want an icon, make RealPlayer the default and you will have a RP icon.
If you really want a thumbnail, which frame do you want to use? The default is the first frame.
I edit my flvs so that the first frame is the title and that's the thumbnail I see.

Message was edited by: nerowolfe

I like to have a thumbnail that tells me the relevant thing about the flv file. Thus, I have a clip from a Roy Rogers movie (don't ask!), the first frame has nothing to do with what the clip is really about (Roy singing), so I played it in QuickTime, stopped at a frame where Roy was actually singing, went to Edit->Copy, then did GetInfo on the file, selected the wee little blank icon at the top, and did Paste. The file now sports a thumbnail of Roy warbling. Often the first few frames don't have anything relevant, so I play until I hit the title or some other good visual cue, pause, copy and then paste into GetInfo.
Francine


Francine
Schwieder

Francine Schwieder wrote:
I like to have a thumbnail that tells me the relevant thing about the flv file. Thus, I have a clip from a Roy Rogers movie (don't ask!)

I have the Gene Autry Phantom Empire video set on this computer. No need to ask 🙂
It's a very big world.

As I noted, I edit the flv and copy and paste a frame I like, usually the title, on the front of the file. I actually prefer this to the humdrum VLC cone, or the other icons that basically advertise some app like RealPlayer. When playing the file, most people don't notice it. Only people who have been in the video editing business for a time are good at spotting a single frame.

Simply download and install 🙂
Need Perian probably

http://homepage.mac.com/xdd/software/flv/
http://www.perian.org/

And an How-to:

http://www.quicklookplugins.com/how-to-install/

Have fun (^_^)