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For VOD assets, Livepeer Studio can provide thumbnails for use in scrubbing or previews. Thumbnails are generated during asset processing (typically one image per segment, about every 3 seconds).
Assets uploaded after November 21, 2023 have thumbnails generated by default. Older assets may need to be re-imported to get thumbnails.

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Get playback info

  1. Upload an asset and wait until it is ready (or use an existing asset).
  2. Call the Playback Info API with the asset’s playback ID.
In the response, look in meta.source for an entry with hrn: "Thumbnails" and type: "text/vtt". That URL points to a WebVTT file that lists keyframe image paths and time ranges.

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WebVTT format

The VTT file lists segments and corresponding image filenames, for example: 
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000
keyframes_0.jpg
00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:20.000
keyframes_1.jpg

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Build thumbnail URLs

If the VTT URL is: https://vod-cdn.lp-playback.studio/.../thumbnails/thumbnails.vtt then the first keyframe image is typically: https://vod-cdn.lp-playback.studio/.../thumbnails/keyframes_0.jpg Use the same base path as the VTT URL and append the filename from the VTT. You can pick the segment index that matches the time you want (e.g. for a scrubber or preview at 30 seconds, use the appropriate keyframe).

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Livestream thumbnails

For livestreams, the playback info returns a single PNG URL (hrn: "Thumbnail (PNG)", type: "image/png") that updates to the latest frame. See Player and embed for poster/thumbnail usage in the Player.
Last modified on February 18, 2026