# Feature Request: Cover thumbnail from time code for MP4
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-cover-thumbnail-from-time-code-for-mp4/46078
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [August 4, 2019, 7:47am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-cover-thumbnail-from-time-code-for-mp4/46078 "2019-08-04T07:47:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Crissov](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Crissov)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2019, 7:47am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-cover-thumbnail-from-time-code-for-mp4/46078/1 "2019-08-04T07:47:06Z")
For episodes of TV shows using MP4 tags, it would be particularly useful to be able to select a time code (either absolute, e. g. at 30s, or relative, e. g. 10% of runtime) from which the frame would be used as a thumbnail picture since cover images are usually not available.
Kodi uses video tags and hence embedded graphics since the latest major release, v18 _Leia_.
Quicktime MOV apparently supports [tags to specify the time code for preview images (_poster_) and clips](https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/QuickTime/QTFF/QTFFChap2/qtff2.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40000939-CH204-55911), i. e. there is no need to actually embed an image that is already available as a frame. This info is stored in `mvhd` inside `moov`. Iʼm not sure whether that is possible in MP4 as well, or supported by players and media centers.
> - Preview time
> The time value in the movie at which the preview begins.
> - Preview duration
> The duration of the movie preview in movie time scale units.
> - Poster time
> The time value of the time of the movie poster.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2019, 9:55am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-cover-thumbnail-from-time-code-for-mp4/46078/2 "2019-08-04T09:55:42Z")
Usually, Mp3tag does not deal with anything else but the tag data - so there is no analysis of the stream data.
AFAIK VLC can take snapshots from video files which then in return can be embedded as covers by MP3tag.
---
### Author:  [@Crissov](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Crissov)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2019, 1:18pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-cover-thumbnail-from-time-code-for-mp4/46078/3 "2019-08-04T13:18:48Z")
Extracting an image and converting it to PNG or JPEG for storage inside the tag would indeed require parsing the video data, but just setting the time index would not.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2019, 5:52am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-cover-thumbnail-from-time-code-for-mp4/46078/4 "2019-08-05T05:52:13Z")
Which field would be used for this information?
Did you have a look at a file and check the extended tags dialogue? I don't think that there is a standard field, so it would be a user-defined one.
Or do the players store this kind of information in their own database and not in the tags?
---
### Author:  [@Crissov](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Crissov)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2019, 11:23am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-cover-thumbnail-from-time-code-for-mp4/46078/5 "2019-08-05T11:23:38Z")
`Poster time`, please see the Apple Developer documentation I linked to above. Itʼs part of `mvhd`, not `udta` like textual info tags.
---
### Author:  [@Wakaku](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Wakaku)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2019, 2:27pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-cover-thumbnail-from-time-code-for-mp4/46078/6 "2019-08-20T14:27:08Z")
If I understood correctly... You could use FFmpeg to specifically _batch_ extract frame images from many movie files, by specifying the time. Then you could use Mp3tag to put them in. For the Matroska container, those extracted images could be then _batch_ embedded with MKVToolNix.
---
### Author:  [@Crissov](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Crissov)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-cover-thumbnail-from-time-code-for-mp4/46078/7 "2019-08-20T18:29:51Z")
Yes, I know I could (and would have to) use other tools to actually extract frames from a video track, but I would prefer to only specify a poster time index anyway.
---
### Author:  [@Crissov](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Crissov)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2020, 7:32am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-cover-thumbnail-from-time-code-for-mp4/46078/8 "2020-05-25T07:32:27Z")
Apparently, the MP4 format does not support time-based thumbnails, but HEIF does.
>
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2020, 7:32am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-cover-thumbnail-from-time-code-for-mp4/46078/9 "2020-06-24T07:32:34Z")
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.