Flash Actionscript (How to build video thumbnail)?

Hi. I am trying to build a simple flash video with actionscript that plays external FLV files.

I have managed to build the actual player with controls so far.

What I need to do next is to build a thumbnail list of available videos below the player that users can click on to begin playing it.

My question is, how do I create a thumbnail that displays the first frame of the video it represents? Would I have to take a screenshot of the first frame of each video and save it as an image and import it into flash to make these thumbnails? Or is there a way to show only the first frame of the video without having to save them as images?

Thanks for the help.

Flash Actionscript (How to build video thumbnail)?div myspace

I think you should create thumbnails from those FLV and use them as button instead of loading the FLV and get the first frame from each to use.

Reasons:

1. you have more control on the size of the final swf

2. you have more choice on the frame of each FLV to use to attract audience

3. if swf is too big, it might mess up the loading of other components of the web page.

4. each FLV can be load to the main swf using loadmovie() command, if you load all FLV, audience might only interested in one, result in bad loading time, wastage in server time/bandwidth.

If you need software that cut out frame from a FLV file try this freeware called Internet Video Converter

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/...