How to create Strapi thumnbnails for videos (mp4)? What I must configure that its works?

Questions and Answers Strapi Backend
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System Information
  • Strapi Version: 4.10.2
  • Operating System: macOS 14.7.1
  • Database: PostgreSQL
  • Node Version: node v16.13.1
  • NPM Version: 10.1.0
  • Yarn Version: 1.22.18

Hi, I’m using Strapi on DigitalOcean App Platform and utilizing DigitalOcean Space for S3. When I retrieve video media, there is no thumbnailUrl generated for videos. How can I enable or generate a thumbnail for my video files using Strapi? Is there a recommended approach or plugin to achieve this functionality?

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Hello,

You are looking to generate thumbnails for video files in Strapi, especially when using DigitalOcean Space for storage. Strapi doesn’t natively create thumbnails for videos, but you can achieve this by using a tool like FFmpeg to generate a thumbnail and then store it alongside your video in DigitalOcean Space.

Steps:

  1. Use FFmpeg to Generate Thumbnails: FFmpeg is a great tool to extract frames from videos. You can use it to generate a thumbnail for a video by extracting a frame at a specific time (e.g., 1 second in).
  2. Create a Custom Service or Middleware: You can create a custom service in Strapi that will trigger whenever a video is uploaded. The service would call FFmpeg to generate a thumbnail and save it as an image. This thumbnail can then be uploaded to your DigitalOcean Space just like any other image.
  3. Automate the Process: To make it seamless, you can hook this functionality into Strapi’s media lifecycle hooks (like afterCreate or afterUpload) so that every time a video is uploaded, it automatically generates a thumbnail and stores it.

There may be community plugins, like strapi-plugin-video-thumbnails, that can simplify this process and handle video to thumbnail conversion automatically. It’s worth checking Strapi’s marketplace for any existing solutions. To solve your problem, you’ll likely need to implement a custom solution using FFmpeg, or look for a plugin that automates the process.