Can I add a preview image to a video post in tumblr?

January 5, 2016 4:21 AM

This is one of those questions that's probably simple once you know how but almost impossible to Google. I have posted a video to a tumblr, yet it shows up on my tumblr site as an unadorned black rectangle with a white 'play' triangle - hardly very tempting or interesting. Is there a way of adding a preview image, either a still manually cropped from the video or automatically generated?
posted by srednivashtar to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Can you/are you willing to post a link to that post on your Tumblr so we can see if it shows up that way for everyone? Not sure if that request is out of line but it might help...
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:03 AM on January 5, 2016

Response by poster: There's an updated link in my profile... it's the most recent post. Hope that's OK.
posted by srednivashtar at 7:40 AM on January 5, 2016

I do not believe there is a way to specify a custom frame for the video preview - Tumblr just uses the first frame of the video. The reason your video shows as a black rectangle is because the video starts with a second or two of black. If you could trim that first bit of the video off, it would at least show the real video content, not a black rectangle.
posted by misterbrandt at 1:16 PM on January 5, 2016

Response by poster: OK - thanks for that. Will give it a try.
posted by srednivashtar at 3:02 PM on January 5, 2016