Using Video.thumbnailTiles

Archived
1

I’m trying to set the thumbnail tiles of a video manually.

I would like to try to set the thumbnails manually, using an image, not a BIF file.

I’ve been scratching my head, and I don’t know why I can’t see the thumbnails as I trickplay

m.videoPlayer = CreateObject("roSGNode", "Video")
    ' Setup content, etc
    m.videoPlayer.thumbnailTiles = {
        tile_1:{
            htiles: 10,
            vtiles: 20,
            width: 102,
            height: 57,
            duration: 634,
            bandwidth: 12000,
            initial_time: 0,
            final_time: 634.566,
            tiles: [["http://dash.edgesuite.net/akamai/bbb_30fps/thumbnails_102x58/tile_1.jpg", 0, ""]]
        }
    }

Is there something else I need to set to see the default thumbnail UI?

2

I’ve never tried what you’re trying, but just looking at the documentation I don’t think your tiles entry is correct. You have an array of arrays. tiles[0] should be “http://dash.edgesuite.net/akamai/bbb_30fps/thumbnails_102x58/tile_1.jpg”. Your tiles[0] is an array itself.

You might be interested in watching this:

https://developer.roku.com/videos/demos/trickplay-webinar.md

3

Thanks renojim,

I’ve tried both

tiles: ["http://dash.edgesuite.net/akamai/bbb_30fps/thumbnails_102x58/tile_1.jpg", 0, ""]

And

tiles: [["http://dash.edgesuite.net/akamai/bbb_30fps/thumbnails_102x58/tile_1.jpg", 0, ""]]

And none of them worked.

I skipped through the Webinar and also saw the samples. The covered cases are using BIF or using DASH. The sample that uses an image also uses a custom UI (multiple posters) to show the thumbnails.

In fact, I tried an array in an array, because inspecting one of the samples using RALE app revealed that setup.

I really exhausted my options before posting here, hoping for some help.

Thanks!

4

Are you using HLS? I think thumbnailTiles is only for HLS or DASH. I assumed you were using DASH.

5

The thumbnails I have are not in DASH manifest, they are just a separate image file.

I’m just trying to feed it into the Video component

6

The more I read the documentation the more I think what you’re trying to do is improper use of that field. I don’t believe it can be used as a replacement for a BIF file. I think it gets filled in with the information when the relevant information is discovered within the DASH/HLS stream and it isn’t something you fill in ahead of time.

7

That’s strange, because the field thumbnailTiles on the Video component is READ_WRITE

This field was first introduced (for VOD only) starting in Roku OS 9.1. Starting with Roku OS 11.0, the channel can enable this field for HLS and DASH live streams containing standard thumbnails by setting enableThumbnailTilesDuringLive to true.

It sounds to me like the field is supposed to be writable, since OS 9.1. But in addition, if you set enableThumbnailTilesDuringLive to true, the field will be auto-populated from the DASH/HLS streams (starting with OS 11.0).

8

I thought the same thing. It’s this statement that I keep coming back to:

“Contains the information about HLS and DASH standard thumbnail tiles as they are discovered within the manifest for streams which contain them.” Does that imply that if they’re not discovered in the manifest then the field isn’t used?

I have to ask, do you have something against BIFs?

9

I have nothing against BIFs, but I already have thumbnails tiled up. If I can’t include these in the video thumbnail directly, which seems to be the case, my last resort will be to find a way to serve them in DASH manifests

10

On that note, is there an example of a DASH manifests where the thumbnail tiles are in multiple jpegs?

I’m not talking about multiple resolutions, but for long videos, they are multiple tilesets per resolution

I can’t seem to figure out the right structure SegmentTemplate inside sets where each images starts at a specific time. I tried setting presentationTimeOffset, but I feel like I did something wrong.