I added an MP4 directly via FTP through FileZilla. It loaded, and plays without a problem ... however there is only a generic thumbnail of a film-strip reel. Is there a way I can insert a still image for the thumbnail?

Please see: http://www.zenphoto.org/news/problems-with-albums-and-images#thumbnails-for-videos-are-not-created

Thanks so muchc !! I found that a .png works, but a .jpg won't. The png however, still only gives me a thumbnail on the album page, but doesn't give me an image on the actual page the clip is in. But I at least have the thumbnail. If there's something else I'm missing, jump in .. and thanks very much again.

It does actually not matter if jpg, gif or png. If jpgs as the most general image format does not work there must be an error in your server error log and that will be related to your server.

Note also that your are on an outdated Zenphoto version and an non official theme.

Of course the "video thumb" is only for the thumbnail as the actual content on the image page itself is the video. Depending on what video player plugin you use it might have options to set a poster image before the video starts there (you did not tell).

Thanks ... tried a few different video editing programs and finally settled on Microsoft's Movie Maker. I was amazed all the it provided without without having to fuss as much as the others. It also seemed to matter which order I added the still shot and the movie in - but that's probably the glitch you were talking about.

I love ZenPhoto and its capabilites, but there were a number of things that weren't available in the provided programs, like subject listings within the album pages, and a separate locations page - so we created them.

It also seemed to matter which order I added the still shot and the movie in - but that's probably the glitch you were talking about.

Best read the user guide entry about caching. You have to clear the image cache if you already got a default image.

but there were a number of things that weren't available in the provided programs, like subject listings within the album pages, and a separate locations page - so we created them.

Not sure I understand exactly but that is of course what themes (and plugins) are for. (I see a modifaction of the zpMasonry theme)

You had said you different video player plugins might provide a poster image - are there some you can recommend? - I'm not sure my response of using Microsoft Movie Maker is what you were looking for.

I am speaking of video plugins for Zenphoto. There are two basically. Please see the extensions section on our site and then the sites of the players used by those plugins.

In any case you have to create the video thumbnail yourself with whatever tool you like to (I use the MPEGStreamclip on Mac for such things). Without such a thumbnail no thumbnail in the gallery and no "poster" image.

Again, Zenphoto cannot extract images from videos because it would require server support to do so. That is so special and quite resource loaded that no shared host - which most user have - has that. Therefore ZP has not even a function for that.

OK .. our system crashed, and we're trying to get everything back up again. Meantime, I did have the thumbnail working, as I noted yesterday - it was just the poster I was getting at. I'll investigate more.