Getting a thumbnail from a video url or data in iOS

Question

I am trying to acquire a thumbnail (of the first frame) from a video taken from iphone 3GS camera so I can display it. How to do this?

Ardine

#7501913 – Action

possible duplicate of Thumbnail image of video – Reformatory

Answer 1

The answer to this question is that one can now with 4.0 iOS get thumbnails using AVFoundation, the following code where the class property url is the movie url, will do the trick (you can get the thumbnail at any time, in the example its at time 0)

-(void)generateImage
{
    AVURLAsset *asset=[[AVURLAsset alloc] initWithURL:self.url options:nil];
    AVAssetImageGenerator *generator = [[AVAssetImageGenerator alloc] initWithAsset:asset];
    generator.appliesPreferredTrackTransform=TRUE;
    [asset release];
    CMTime thumbTime = CMTimeMakeWithSeconds(0,30);

    AVAssetImageGeneratorCompletionHandler handler = ^(CMTime requestedTime, CGImageRef im, CMTime actualTime, AVAssetImageGeneratorResult result, NSError *error){
        if (result != AVAssetImageGeneratorSucceeded) {
            NSLog(@"couldn't generate thumbnail, error:%@", error);
        }
        [button setImage:[UIImage imageWithCGImage:im] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
        thumbImg=[[UIImage imageWithCGImage:im] retain];
        [generator release];
    };

    CGSize maxSize = CGSizeMake(320, 180);
    generator.maximumSize = maxSize;
    [generator generateCGImagesAsynchronouslyForTimes:[NSArray arrayWithObject:[NSValue valueWithCMTime:thumbTime]] completionHandler:handler];

}

Ardine

That code works great. The only downside of AVAssettImageGenerator is that presently it uses keyframes, which are typically spaced at one-second intervals -- so you can't get any finer resolution than that. If you're just trying to make some thumbnails to spread out over a timeline it's probably fine, but if you're trying to read consecutive frames, this won't work. In that case you have to use AVAssetReader, which has some quirks of its own, or MPMovieController, which has thumbnail methods that are frame-accurate. – Millenary

Appreciate this thread is old, but just want to add that MPMoviePlayerController (see below) is a much faster option. The code above takes a good 5-10 seconds to generate a thumbnail, whereas MPMovie is almost instant. – Deplore

I have try the above method to get thumb image from video but is not giving all thumb like at time 1.5 . @AndyMilburn can you give any sample link to get thumb using AVAssetReader. – Sulfurous

@AndyMilburn That's not exactly true, if you set requestedTimeToleranceBefore/After to smaller values you can get more closely spaced thumbnails. – Jayme

Gives me the error AVErrorOperationNotSupportedForAsset . plz help – Karrikarrie

@Deplore I've tried this method with 5 different videos at the same time and all thumbnails are ready within a second; one thing to note is that you should use GCD to update the UI. – Tameratamerlane

Answer 2

-(UIImage *)generateThumbImage : (NSString *)filepath
{
    NSURL *url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:filepath];

    AVAsset *asset = [AVAsset assetWithURL:url];
    AVAssetImageGenerator *imageGenerator = [[AVAssetImageGenerator alloc]initWithAsset:asset];
    imageGenerator.appliesPreferredTrackTransform = YES;
    CMTime time = [asset duration];
    time.value = 0;
    CGImageRef imageRef = [imageGenerator copyCGImageAtTime:time actualTime:NULL error:NULL];
    UIImage *thumbnail = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:imageRef];
    CGImageRelease(imageRef);  // CGImageRef won't be released by ARC

    return thumbnail;
}

you can get the frame using the time.value suppose you want to 1 second frame then use the

time.value = 1000 //Time in milliseconds

Table

@Diken Shah How Do i Get a thumbnail at n th second of the video. I set time.value=n but still i get the first frame – Oxyacetylene

To reliably get a thumbnail for different time indexes you need to set the requestedTimeTolerance properties on the imageGenerator, as detailed in this answer. #39525753 – Evocator

Answer 3

NSURL *videoURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:url];

MPMoviePlayerController *player = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:videoURL];

        UIImage *thumbnail = [player thumbnailImageAtTime:1.0 timeOption:MPMovieTimeOptionNearestKeyFrame];

        //Player autoplays audio on init
        [player stop];
        [player release];

Check this link for an alternative: thumbnailImageAtTime: now deprecated - What's the alternative?

Mousseline

@Maulik i tried above code to generate image its working fine,but i am not getting video time line how can i get this also do u have any idea – Fleda

the thumbnail image is not displaying the time. Can you please edit your code if you know this? – Syzygy

will I be able to use this for screen capturing the video and not for creating thumbnail? – Einsteinium

I'm using this url sciencentral.com/news/image_db/2024515/… I get nil thumbnail image. please help – Karrikarrie

Isn't this approach much less memory friendly than the AVAssetImageGenerator approach? The way I understand it - the whole video needs to be loaded into memory in order to generate a single image. – Dorella

thumbnailImageAtTime: is deprecated now, just FYI to anyone who visits this thread. – Meenen

Answer 4

Best method I've found... MPMoviePlayerController thumbnailImageAtTime:timeOption

Cohbath

The best method i would say is using AVFoundation – Ardine

Actually on testing I find this method is much faster than the AVAsset code listed above. – Deplore

I'm using this url sciencentral.com/news/image_db/2024515/… I get nil thumbnail image. please help – Karrikarrie

But in this method first video should play at once than only it gives thumbnail image of frame. So its better use AVURLAsset for getting thumbnail image of any video file. – Table

Answer 5

SWIFT 2.0

You can generate in swift in two ways 1. AVFoundation 2. MPMoviePlayerController

1. 

    func generateThumnail(url : NSURL) -> UIImage{
            var asset : AVAsset = AVAsset.assetWithURL(url) as AVAsset
            var assetImgGenerate : AVAssetImageGenerator = AVAssetImageGenerator(asset: asset)
            assetImgGenerate.appliesPreferredTrackTransform = true
            var error       : NSError? = nil
            var time        : CMTime = CMTimeMake(1, 30)
            var img         : CGImageRef = assetImgGenerate.copyCGImageAtTime(time, actualTime: nil, error: &error)
            var frameImg    : UIImage = UIImage(CGImage: img)!
            
            return frameImg
        }

2. 

    override func viewDidLoad() {
            super.viewDidLoad()
            var moviePlayer         : MPMoviePlayerController!  = MPMoviePlayerController(contentURL: moviePlayManager.movieURL)
            moviePlayer.view.frame   = CGRect(x: self.view.frame.origin.x, y: self.view.frame.origin.y, width:
                                       self.view.frame.size.width, height: self.view.frame.height)
            moviePlayer.fullscreen   = true
            moviePlayer.controlStyle = MPMovieControlStyle.None
            NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self,
        selector: "videoThumbnailIsAvailable:",
        name: MPMoviePlayerThumbnailImageRequestDidFinishNotification,
        object: nil)


        let thumbnailTimes = 3.0
        moviePlayer.requestThumbnailImagesAtTimes([thumbnailTimes],
                timeOption: .NearestKeyFrame)
        }
    
    func videoThumbnailIsAvailable(notification: NSNotification){
        
        if let player = moviePlayer{
            let thumbnail =
            notification.userInfo![MPMoviePlayerThumbnailImageKey] as? UIImage
            
            if let image = thumbnail{
                
                /* We got the thumbnail image. You can now use it here */
                println("Thumbnail image = \(image)")
            }
        }

Irritating

solution 1 works in most cases for me but not always do you know why ? #37374508 – Occidental

Actually i will take a tour on your post in free time. Thanks for your comment :) – Irritating

Answer 6

Swift 2 code:

func previewImageForLocalVideo(url:NSURL) -> UIImage?
{
    let asset = AVAsset(URL: url)
    let imageGenerator = AVAssetImageGenerator(asset: asset)
    imageGenerator.appliesPreferredTrackTransform = true

    var time = asset.duration
    //If possible - take not the first frame (it could be completely black or white on camara's videos)
    time.value = min(time.value, 2)

    do {
        let imageRef = try imageGenerator.copyCGImageAtTime(time, actualTime: nil)
        return UIImage(CGImage: imageRef)
    }
    catch let error as NSError
    {
        print("Image generation failed with error \(error)")
        return nil
    }
}

Reformatory

It works in most cases but not always do you know why? #37374508 – Occidental

Answer 7

For Swift 3.0

func createThumbnailOfVideoFromFileURL(_ strVideoURL: String) -> UIImage?{

let asset = AVAsset(url: URL(string: strVideoURL)!)
let assetImgGenerate = AVAssetImageGenerator(asset: asset)
assetImgGenerate.appliesPreferredTrackTransform = true
let time = CMTimeMakeWithSeconds(Float64(1), 100)
do {
  let img = try assetImgGenerate.copyCGImage(at: time, actualTime: nil)
  let thumbnail = UIImage(cgImage: img)
  return thumbnail
} catch {
  /* error handling here */
}
return nil   }

Izolaiztaccihuatl

Answer 8

For Swift 5

import AVKit

Code:

// Get Thumbnail Image from URL
fileprivate func getThumbnailFromUrl(_ url: String?, _ completion: @escaping ((_ image: UIImage?)->Void)) {

    guard let url = URL(string: url ?? "") else { return }
    DispatchQueue.main.async {
        let asset = AVAsset(url: url)
        let assetImgGenerate = AVAssetImageGenerator(asset: asset)
        assetImgGenerate.appliesPreferredTrackTransform = true

        let time = CMTimeMake(value: 2, timescale: 1)
        do {
            let img = try assetImgGenerate.copyCGImage(at: time, actualTime: nil)
            let thumbnail = UIImage(cgImage: img)
            completion(thumbnail)
        } catch {
            print("Error :: ", error.localizedDescription)
            completion(nil)
        }
    }
}

Usage :: Take one Image View

@IBOutlet weak var imgThumbnail: UIImageView!

Then after call getThumbnailFromUrl method for thumbnail with URL String as parameter

self.getThumbnailFromUrl(videoURL) { [weak self] (img) in

        guard let _ = self else { return }
        if let img = img {
            self?.imgThumbnail.image = img
        }
    }

pls try this if it is use full then pls comment Thank you

Bruiser

I am using this solution is worked fine for me.Thanks Rohan Aryan – Cholinesterase

Answer 9

Swift 4

func generateThumbnail(for asset:AVAsset) -> UIImage? {
    let assetImgGenerate : AVAssetImageGenerator = AVAssetImageGenerator(asset: asset)
    assetImgGenerate.appliesPreferredTrackTransform = true
    let time = CMTimeMake(value: 1, timescale: 2)
    let img = try? assetImgGenerate.copyCGImage(at: time, actualTime: nil)
    if img != nil {
        let frameImg  = UIImage(cgImage: img!)
       return frameImg
    }
    return nil
}

How to use:

   func imagePickerController(_ picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo info: [UIImagePickerController.InfoKey : Any]) {
    picker.dismiss(animated: true) {

        switch mediaType {
        case kUTTypeMovie:
            guard info[UIImagePickerController.InfoKey.mediaType] != nil, let url = info[UIImagePickerController.InfoKey.mediaURL] as? URL else { return }
            let asset = AVAsset(url: url)
            guard let img = self.generateThumbnail(for: asset) else {
                print("Error: Thumbnail can be generated.")
                return
            }
            print("Image Size: \(img.size)")
            break
        default:
            break
        }
    }
}

Hopson

Answer 10

Maybe this is useful for someone else who faces the same problem. I needed an easy solution for creating a thumbnail for Images, PDFs and Videos. To solve that problem I've created the following Library.

https://github.com/prine/ROThumbnailGenerator

The usage is very straightforward: var thumbnailImage = ROThumbnail.getThumbnail(url)

It has internally three different implementations and depending on the file extension it does create the thumbnail. You can easily add your own implementation if you need a thumbnail creator for another file extension.

Bustard

It works in most cases but not always do you know why? #37374508 – Occidental

Answer 11

Swift 2.1 Getting thumbnails at required time intervals

func getPreviewImageForVideoAtURL(videoURL: NSURL, atInterval: Int) -> UIImage? {
    print("Taking pic at \(atInterval) second")
    let asset = AVAsset(URL: videoURL)
    let assetImgGenerate = AVAssetImageGenerator(asset: asset)
    assetImgGenerate.appliesPreferredTrackTransform = true
    let time = CMTimeMakeWithSeconds(Float64(atInterval), 100)
    do {
        let img = try assetImgGenerate.copyCGImageAtTime(time, actualTime: nil)
        let frameImg = UIImage(CGImage: img)
        return frameImg
    } catch {
        /* error handling here */
    }
    return nil
}

Harmonics

Answer 12

You will get Thumbnail Image From URL when you change "fileURLWithPath" to "URLWithString".

In My case it worked like this.

NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:filepath];
AVAsset *asset = [AVAsset assetWithURL:url];
AVAssetImageGenerator *imageGenerator = [[AVAssetImageGenerator alloc]initWithAsset:asset];
CMTime time = [asset duration];
time.value = 0;
CGImageRef imageRef = [imageGenerator copyCGImageAtTime:time actualTime:NULL error:NULL];
UIImage *thumbnail = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:imageRef];
CGImageRelease(imageRef);

return thumbnail;

Laxation