.NET : How to Create thumbnail from flash

Question

Is there any way where i can create a thumbnail image from a flash movie file(flv /swf) [NOT FROM A VIDEO File ] in ASP.NET ? Any samples of implementation ?

Answer 1

you can use ffmpeg to create thumbnails of the flash video

Answer 2

For .flv you can use ffmpeg to convert parts of the video (e.g. one frame) into an image (sequence)

I've used it as command-line application by calling Process.Start(), but there is at least one wrapper for .NET (I haven't tested it myself): http://www.codeplex.com/ffmpegdotnet

For .swf I don't know any way to achieve this without some Adobe tool.

Answer 3

for flv it can be done easily, as others mentioned ...

for swf, it depends HIGHLY on the swf ... if the swfs visual appearence is determined by code, there is no other way than to embed a flash player in you app and either let the flash player make the snapshots, encode them as JPEG/PNG, and send them somewhere using TCP or LocalConnection (a flash<->flash communication connection, which can be used with C# as well) or try to somehow grab its output buffer yourself ... the first possibility should be no more than 10-20 lines of actionscript code ... don't know about the latter ...

other than that, you might use an external command line converter ... there are a few floating around the web ...

greetz

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