Method and apparatus for embedding media programs having custom user selectable thumbnails

摘要

A method and apparatus for embedding a media program with a randomly user selected thumbnail is disclosed. The user can scan a media program to identify one of a plurality of media program frames, select the frame of interest, then designate it as the thumbnail to use in connection with the embedded media program.

主权项

1. A method of embedding a media program having a plurality of frames, the embedded media program having a user-selected thumbnail, the method comprising:
receiving a command to scan a subset of the plurality of frames, the subset of the plurality of frames spanning the media program; transmitting at least one of the subset of the plurality of frames responsive to the received scan command to a user interface for display in the user interface; receiving a command to embed the media program, the command identifying one of the subset of the plurality of frames as a thumbnail for visually representing the media program, wherein only the subset of the plurality of frames are eligible for visually representing the media program; generating instructions for embedding the media program, the instructions including a global address to request at least a portion of the media program for playing, the global address having a first index to the identified frame; and transmitting the generated instructions, the instructions configured to embed the media program in a media program player on a page at a client, wherein the instructions cause the client to determine and send a second address different from the global address using the instructions and the global address to request a thumbnail that will be used to represent the media program in the media program player before sending a request using the global address for the media program for playing in the media program player on the page, and wherein the second address is based on the first index in the global address and the first index is used to determine the thumbnail from a file associated with the media program.