How to Change a Panopto Video's Thumbnail Image
This documentation will go over how to change the preview image of your video in the editor or from its settings. The preview image is the thumbnail that represents your video in the video library.
Instructions
Change the Thumbnail Image in the Video Settings
Log in to Blackboard and navigate to the course videos section of your course.
Users can also log in to Panopto online at https://alabama.hosted.panopto.com/ and navigate to the course video folder that contains videos they would like to edit.
Hover over the thumbnail of the video you would like to edit until the editing options appear.
Select the Setting “gear” icon from those editing options.
Please note: The maximum file size for a custom preview image is 2 MB, with a height of 227px and width of 404px. Anything larger than this will be sized down, and anything uploaded that doesn't meet a 16:9 ratio will have pillars added vertically or horizontally on the image. All widely-supported formats are acceptable, though we strongly encourage using either JPG or PNG file formats.
Change the Thumbnail Image in the Panopto Editor
In the Panopto editor, on the timeline, place the red bar at the place in your video that displays the image you want to use as your thumbnail. Expand the Set preview image icon, which appears as three horizontal dots, and then select one of the following three options (Fig. 1):
Set primary as preview image: This will set the preview image to the image that is displayed in the primary stream at the timestamp selected.
Set secondary as preview image: This will set the preview image to the image that is displayed in the secondary stream at the timestamp selected.
Upload custom preview image: This will open the video's settings, where you can upload a custom thumbnail image. If you select this, please proceed to step 2.2., below.
Select Apply once you've completed your edits to the video.
The new preview image will now appear for the video.