Custom movie chapter thumbs

[Father_Defroque 0]

Hi,

I have an mkv file that initially showed thumbnails for all chapters but now only shows one for the first. Is there any way to manually add/edit chapter images to fix this ?

[Abobader 3464]

Hello Father_Defroque,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

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Emby Team

[GrimReaper 4740]

10 minutes ago, Father_Defroque said:

Is there any way to manually add/edit chapter images to fix this ?

 

[Father_Defroque 0]

2 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

 

Looks good and will come in useful for a few other files but not quite what I'm looking for unless I'm missing something. I'm looking to either set the image manually somehow or tell emby at what timestamp in the chapter to take the thumb from.

[GrimReaper 4740]

15 minutes ago, Father_Defroque said:

tell emby at what timestamp in the chapter to take the thumb from.

That's exactly what you can use the plugin for, either automatically at pre-set intervals or individually at a certain timestamp. 

 

Edited June 10, 2025 by GrimReaper

[Father_Defroque 0]

Ah I misunderstood then. I thought that part was to set where in the file the actual chapter started.

[GrimReaper 4740]

Well, now I'm confused, as I don't quite understand what you mean by that. Can you give an exact example of what are you trying to achieve? 

[Father_Defroque 0]

A movie shows in the server as having 11 chapters. The thumbnail for the first chapter shows fine (though a little way into the scene), the other thumbs are all black (presumably because it's using the first frame of that chapter).

What I was looking to do was either point emby to specific image files to use as thumbs or tell it to use specific timestamps to generate each one but without changing when the actual chapters start.

Edited June 10, 2025 by Father_Defroque

[GrimReaper 4740]

On 6/10/2025 at 2:53 AM, Father_Defroque said:

What I was looking to do was either point emby to specific image files to use as thumbs or tell it to use specific timestamps to generate each one but without changing when the actual chapters start.

No, there are no provisions to have chapter starting at 05:00 and have a thumbnail from timestamp 06:50 within Emby itself. 

You can manipulate those images on OS level, though: from your web browser, right click any chapter thumbnail>Open image in new tab; address in the address bar will contain "SourceId=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" part, which is actually a folder within server programdata\metadata\library folder that contains all chapter thumbnails for an item; you can replace any image there.

[Father_Defroque 0]

Ah that's a shame. Would be nice if there was, especially if they could be stored with the media itself like the cover art etc. but i'm sure there's a reason for it being the way it is.

I'll give the replacement thing a go and see what happens.