Package detailsv0.7.3

get_thumbnail_video

A flutter plugin for creating a thumbnail from a local video file or from a video URL.

AndroidiOSWeb

pub.dev API documentation Source code

30-day downloads: 97.9K
Likes: 63
Pub points: 130

Install package

flutter pub add get_thumbnail_video

Package Overview

Package selection guidance compiled from public package information, community data, and project usage.

A Flutter plugin that generates a thumbnail image from a local video file or a video URL. It supports Android, iOS, and Web platforms, enabling developers to extract a representative frame from videos for previews, galleries, or media displays. The plugin leverages native capabilities through platform-specific implementations, ensuring efficient performance and compatibility across devices. It is particularly useful in apps requiring visual representation of video content without playing the full video.

Use cases

Video preview generation
Media gallery thumbnails
Content recommendation UIs
Video upload previews
Social media post previews

Key features

Supports local video files
Supports video URLs
Cross-platform (Android, iOS, Web)
Efficient frame extraction
Simple API integration

Suitable for

Media-heavy applications
Video sharing platforms
Content management systems
Mobile apps with video libraries
Web-based video viewers

Considerations

Requires proper permissions on Android and iOS
Web support may have limitations based on browser capabilities
Large video files may impact performance
Thumbnail quality depends on source video resolution
Network requests for remote URLs require error handling

Original README

Original README snapshot from the linked source repository. Visit the repository for the latest content.

get_video_thumbnail

This project is a modified fork of video_thumbnail, originally created by John Zhong. Modifications and improvements have been made to adapt the project to new needs.

This plugin generates thumbnail from video file or URL. It returns image in memory or writes into a file. It offers rich options to control the image format, resolution and quality. Supports iOS / Android / web.

Methods

function	parameter	description	return
thumbnailData	String `[video]`, optional Map<String, dynamic> `[headers]`, ImageFormat `[imageFormat]`(JPEG/PNG/WEBP), int `[maxHeight]`(0: for the original resolution of the video, or scaled by the source aspect ratio), [maxWidth]`(0: for the original resolution of the video, or scaled by the source aspect ratio), int` [timeMs]`generates the thumbnail from the frame around the specified millisecond, int`[quality]`(0-100)	generates thumbnail from `[video]`	`[Future<Uint8List>]`
thumbnailFile	String `[video]`, optional Map<String, dynamic> `[headers]`, String `[thumbnailPath]`(folder or full path where to store the thumbnail file, null to save to same folder as the video file) this ignored on the web, ImageFormat `[imageFormat]`(JPEG/PNG/WEBP), int `[maxHeight]`(0: for the original resolution of the video, or scaled by the source aspect ratio), int `[maxWidth]`(0: for the original resolution of the video, or scaled by the source aspect ratio), int `[timeMs]` generates the thumbnail from the frame around the specified millisecond, int `[quality]`(0-100)	creates a file of the thumbnail from the `[video]`	`[Future<String>]`

Warning:

Giving both the maxHeight and maxWidth has different result on Android platform, it actually scales the thumbnail to the specified maxHeight and maxWidth. To generate the thumbnail from a network resource, the video must be properly URL encoded.

Usage

Installing add get_thumbnail_video as a dependency in your pubspec.yaml file.

dependencies:
  get_thumbnail_video: ^0.7.3

import

import 'package:get_thumbnail_video/video_thumbnail.dart';

Generate a thumbnail in memory from video file

final uint8list = await VideoThumbnail.thumbnailData(
  video: videofile.path,
  imageFormat: ImageFormat.JPEG,
  maxWidth: 128, // specify the width of the thumbnail, let the height auto-scaled to keep the source aspect ratio
  quality: 25,
);

Generate a thumbnail file from video URL

XFile thumbnailFile = await VideoThumbnail.thumbnailFile(
  video: "https://flutter.github.io/assets-for-api-docs/assets/videos/butterfly.mp4",
  thumbnailPath: (await getTemporaryDirectory()).path,
  imageFormat: ImageFormat.WEBP,
  maxHeight: 64, // specify the height of the thumbnail, let the width auto-scaled to keep the source aspect ratio
  quality: 75,
);

final image = kIsWeb ? Image.network(thumbnailFile.path) : Image.file(File(thumbnailFile.path));

Generate a thumbnail file from video Assets declared in pubspec.yaml

final byteData = await rootBundle.load("assets/my_video.mp4");
Directory tempDir = await getTemporaryDirectory();

File tempVideo = File("${tempDir.path}/assets/my_video.mp4")
  ..createSync(recursive: true)
  ..writeAsBytesSync(byteData.buffer.asUint8List(byteData.offsetInBytes, byteData.lengthInBytes));

final fileName = await VideoThumbnail.thumbnailFile(
  video: tempVideo.path,
  thumbnailPath: (await getTemporaryDirectory()).path,
  imageFormat: ImageFormat.PNG,  
  quality: 100,
);

Limitations on the Web platform

Flutter Thumbnail on the Web platform has some limitations that might surprise developers more familiar with mobile/desktop targets.

In no particular order:

CORS headers

This plugin requires the server hosting the video to include appropriate CORS headers in the response. Specifically, the server must include the Access-Control-Allow-Origin and Access-Control-Allow-Methods headers in the response to the request. For more information, please refer to the Mozilla Developer Network documentation.

HTTP range headers

This plugin requires the server hosting the video to support HTTP range headers. If the server does not support range requests, the plugin may generate a thumbnail from the first frame of the video instead of the desired frame. For more information, please refer to the Mozilla Developer Network documentation.

Notes

Fork or pull requests are always welcome. Currently it seems have a little performance issue while generating WebP thumbnail by using libwebp under iOS.