You can set custom thumbnail images for your videos. If you want to check out some expert advice on making your thumbnails the best they can be, check out our blog post on this very topic!
To add thumbnails:
Navigate to Content.
Click on Videos.
Click on the video you want to upload a thumbnail for.
Scroll down "Thumbnails" and hover your mouse over the default selected thumbnail image to upload your own.
You will then be prompted to upload your thumbnail image.
We recommend uploading PNG or JPEG images only.
OPTIONAL: You can set a separate Featured Category Image if you'll be using this video in a feature category slider on the catalog page.
Don't forget to click Save at the top of the page.
NOTE: You no longer need to upload a player-specific thumbnail image. As part of our efforts to make your workflows more efficient, we now use the Catalog image where the player image is used to be. You can no longer upload a player-specific image.
Vertical Video Thumbnails (beta)
Vertical Thumbnails are currently in beta. It also requires your site to be on our upgraded editor experience.
You have the option to define a vertical video thumbnail. This is like a movie poster at a 1:1.42 ratio or 1188x1682px.
Vertical thumbnails only appear when you define a category to display thumbnails as vertical. This is a vertical thumbnail only. The video still plays in the typical landscape orientation because Uscreen does not currently support vertical video playback.
NOTE: This is a new feature! It became available in September 2024. It requires that you are on the new version of the Uscreen website, mobile versions 3.20 or later, the latest versions of tvOS, Roku, FireTV, Android TV, and Samsung TV apps.
Adding Vertical Thumbnails to your Catalog
To use Vertical Thumbnails in your catalog, you'll need to designate which categories will be displayed in a vertical format. You'll want to upload vertical thumbnails for every video in your category. If a video in the category does not have a designated vertical thumbnail, the horizontal thumbnail will display instead.
Designate a collection for vertical thumbnails
Open your site editor and choose Catalog at the top of the editor panel.
From there, select which categories will use Vertical Thumbnails.
Don't forget to hit Save & apply.
How thumbnails look on the catalog
The Catalog Image will appear in your catalog with all of the other videos you have published.
The Catalog Image will appear like the following samples:
You can replace these images at any time for existing videos by removing the existing thumbnail and uploading a new one:
NOTE: If you've swapped thumbnails and aren't seeing them right away, just hang tight; occasionally, CDNs that deliver the optimized images can be a little slow to update in some areas of the world but rest assured, it will appear soon!
Remove a Video Thumbnail
Currently, you're unable to remove a video thumbnail without replacing it with a different thumbnail image.
If you want to remove the thumbnail and revert back to the system-generated thumbnail image, you must delete and re-upload your video. You can then not upload a thumbnail and leave the system-generated thumbnail image.