How to specify a thumb frame in 6.24

eltonbuddha

Just updated to 6.24 from 6.10. The good news is that sequence preview doesn't crash the program as often when playback speed is used in combination with video effects

But the bad news is that clip thumbnails are completely broken. "Use this frame for thumb frame" menu item in either clip or sequence preview window fails to show the frame in either storyboard or timeline view. Whatever frame is the first in the clip remains fixed as the thumbnail. Has anyone figured a workaround for this bug? If not, any word on when NCH will fix it?

borate

Report a bug. https://www.nch.com.au/software/bug.html?software=VideoPad

eltonbuddha

When I reported this just now, NCH said to download 6.28 which "fixes several bugs, including this one". I duly installed 6.28. No difference whatsoever. I submitted the same bug report against 6.28 not 5 minutes later, and they replied that 6.29 is "in beta pre-release" and "should fix this". Clearly they have a bot replying to all bug reports if there's a even a 10 minute more recent "pre-release" that they hope fixes everything. I'm going back to 6.10 for now. It's the devil I know and I can at least set thumbnails on clips. It's too bad because 6.24 seems to smoothly sequence-preview across clip boundaries, which seems miraculous compared to 6.10.

c_major_2

We have received the bug report and are working on it. Thanks.

eltonbuddha

Thanks c_major. Good to know a human is aware of this bug and is working on it. Could you let me know in this thread when the fix is available?

Also, for customer relations sake, you might want to change the wording of the auto-reply to not claim the bug just reported is fixed in the newest version. Just leave it as "several bugs have been fixed". The bot has no idea if the specific bug is fixed since it apparently doesn't read the bug report.

[deleted]

Just checked this out in 6.28. Seems to work OK

i.e.

Load a clip
Place it on the timeline (This step in obligatory-It can be added to other clips if wanted)
Select the clip it in the clip bin
In the Clip Preview window , move the cursor line to the frame you want to use
Right click the preview image (the frame you want)
Select Use this Frame for Thumb Frame

The clip bin thumbnail is changed for the selected frame. As far as I know it has always functioned in this way. i.e. The feature works only with clips selected from the clip bin.

It does NOT work if the frame is selected from a clip on the timeline and examined in clip preview...It must be selected from the clip bin. It might be helpful if the prompt was removed from the menu if the clip is selected from the timeline. (Unless this route was meant to function and actually doesn't.)

Nat

borate

See later posts that outline the procedure.

eltonbuddha

I guess I'm confused. c_major says they're working to fix this, and it for sure doesn't work in 6.28. In any case Borate, I've always used the clip preview window to choose a thumb frame, not the sequence preview.

BTW, following Nat's exact procedure above, I got it to work when the clip was the only one in the sequence. When others are added, it stops working. Nat, try loading a video file into a sequence and split it into several clips. The default thumbnail for each clip it the first frame of each - not a bad choice. But now I want to manually select a different frame in clip 1 as the thumbnail. I do it in clip preview window. Nothing happens.

borate

Loaded five video clips into the bin. Selected one, then moved the line to the desired spot and right-clicked|USE THIS FRAME FOR THUMBNAIL.

That changed the thumbnail in the bin to the chosen image. Tested this repeatedly on each clip and it worked every time, using VP beta 6.29.

eltonbuddha

"There was no change in the clips on the timeline, in either TL or Storyboard mode."

But that's precisely the bug. Showing up on the timeline is what all versions through 6.10 did. The current 6.2x versions don't, and as c_major says above, they're still trying to figure out why.

Btw, I don't know what you mean by "in the bin" the image does change. I've never seen thumbnail's of clips derived from video files showing up in any of the 4 bins (video files, audio files, images, sequences). Is there I "clip bin" somewhere I've accidentally made invisible?

borate

A clip in the bin is clicked. It shows up in the preview window. Scroll the window and right-click. Click USE THIS FRAME FOR THUMBNAIL.

The thumbnail in the bin (still image that appears on the clip itself) will change to the frame you chose.

[deleted]

".......try loading a video file into a sequence and split it into several clips. The default thumbnail for each clip it the first frame of each - not a bad choice. ..."

On the timeline the split point of the clip shows the frame at the split depending on the zoom level. The "thumbnail" referred to in the context of this thread is the image seen in the clip bin and this is chosen from the clip bin clip when it is displayed in the clip preview window. It won't change if the clip is selected from the timeline.

Also when a thumbnail is selected in this way.....and provided the clip on the timeline has not been split, that thumbnail will appear as the clip image in storyboard mode as well . i.e. the clip bin image will be the same as the storyboard image.

"Btw, I don't know what you mean by "in the bin" the image does change.

"In the bin" refers to the image shown in the Clip Bin. As I said..If you select a clip from the clip bin (right click it) it will preview in the Clip Preview window. Slide the cursor line along under this window to a desired frame and then right click the preview pane. In the menu that appears select Use this frame for Thumb Frame. This will change the image in the clip bin. ( If the clip is on the timeline already the storyboard thumbnail for the clip will also change.) If you split the clip after you change the thumbnail, the storyboard thumbnail will not change but I think this depends on where the split is made relevant to the position of the frame you chose for the thumbnail.

Selecting a clip from the sequence line will not work...even if you use the clip preview pane. This may be what NCH are working on.

"I've never seen thumbnail's of clips derived from video files showing up in any of the 4 bins (video files, audio files, images, sequences). Is there I "clip bin" somewhere I've accidentally made invisible?"

If you are not seeing images in any of the bins then you are most probably in List View. If this is the case look at the top of the bin...there will be a button containing 4 small squares. Right click this and you should now see clip thumbnails in the bin.

Nat

c_major_2

Please let me clarify this.

When selecting a clip from the sequence timeline, Use this frame for Thumb Frame will change the thumbnail used in storyboard of the corresponding clip (instead of the original clip from the bin).

The clips on sequence timeline are considered as a copy of the clips in the bin. A bin clip can have multiple copies on the sequence timeline. You can select thumbnail for each copy independently.

borate

Try this...

Choose storyboard view and select (highlight) a clip.

Click the PREVIEW tab above the window, if necessary.

Drag the preview window slider to the desired frame.

Right-Click in the window and click USE THIS FRAME FOR THUMBNAIL .

Wait a few seconds.

If the clip's image does not update the thumb spontaneously, as it often doesn't when begun from storyboard mode, click on the selected storyboard clip.

If instead, the process is initiated while in timeline mode, the thumbs will auto-update when switching to storyboard, as Nat outlines below.

[deleted]

Bit complex. In a nutshell...

Select a clip in the bin. (Nothing on timeline)
In clip preview select frame and right clip the preview window
Choose Use this frame for Thumbnail and image in the clip bin will change.

and
Select a clip in the bin and place on the timeline
In clip preview select a frame and right click the preview window
Choose Use this frame for Thumbnail. In Timeline mode nothing changes
In Storyboard mode however the clip image is changed

and
Select a clip in the bin and place on the timeline
Select another clip from the bin and place on the timeline after the first clip. This can be the same clip or a different clip
Select first clip from the timeline
In clip preview select frame and right clip the preview window
Choose Use this frame for Thumbnail Timeline remains unchanged
Select second clip from the timeline
In clip preview select a frame (or a different frame if the same clip is used) and right click the preview window
Choose Use this frame for Thumbnail In timeline mode nothing changes
In Storyboard mode however both of the identical clips show their selected images and a new clip will also show its selected image.

I think that covers it.

Nat

eltonbuddha

I'm confused. I tried to follow what I take to be the gist of the above responses. The picture below is a screenshot of VP 6.28 with one video file loaded.

First question: which of the 4 bins names in the upper left is the "clip bin"? All I see is "Sequences", "video files", "audio files", and "images". No tab is labeled "clips". So what is this "clip bin" you speak of?

Second question: It looks like VP is in a complete muddle?? The clip preview window is blank even though the first clip in the sequence is clearly selected. AND, the thumbnail in the "video files" bin is checked, which I think means the "clip" represented by the whole file is selected?? But again, the clip preview doesn't contain anything.

https://pictr.com/image/0LteDc

[deleted]

".....which of the 4 bins names in the upper left is the "clip bin"? All I see is "Sequences", "video files", "audio files", and "images". No tab is labeled "clips". So what is this "clip bin" you speak of?"

Each of those tabs if clicked will open a "bin" The Video Files bin is the one usually referred to as the "Clip" bin as it contains the thumbnails of the clips you have loaded to VP. When these clips are dragged or placed on the timeline they show a green tick.

The first thing to note is you have Clip Preview and Sequence Preview windows open. That's OK.

On the left you will see that there is a row of thumbnails under the Clip preview window showing the contents of the Clip. The start of this clip is obviously black...perhaps you have a fade in effect or a black frame.** The cursor is positioned in this section so the clip preview pane is also black.

On the right is the Sequence preview window in which the cursor is someway along the first clip (which is the clip selected) and shows the frame at this position which is not black.

The sequence track shows you are in Storyboard mode with two clips present. As noted above, clip one is selected. The cursor line position here reflects the cursor line position in the Sequence pane and shows that you are displaying a frame from clip one but it is obviously beyond the black section ** so an image is shown in the Sequence window.

** Note that the black area could be a single frame at the start of clip one . From your image it is hard to tell as the clip preview cursor is positioned at the start of the clip.

The last thing to note is that you have one clip only in the "Clip bin" 🙂 and you have placed this twice on the timeline. As the storyboard frames have different images you have seemingly used the method (3) described in my post above to change one of those images using Use this Frame for Thumb Frame. The "clip bin" thumbnails is the same as in the storyboard first clip so you probably changed thumbnail two.

Hope this resolves the confusion...There is nothing wrong here..

Nat

St_Bosse

Hi, I'm new at this video stuff. I have tried every thing above and none shows my selected image in windows explorer or wherever copied to, when my video is exported. My videos all shows a black square!

St B

borate

The above discussion refers to how thumbnails are chosen and displayed in Videopad.

When a video is exported, the player, such as Windows Media Player, usually uses its first frame for the thumbnail.

So, if the video fades up from black, the thumb will likely be black.

If you are exporting a still image file or files and all you see are black frames, then something is wrong. Please give more specific details about the content, and exactly what you are doing.