How to change thumbnails of mp4 files

Usually the thumbnails of video files are chosen randomly from the first few seconds of the clip. But there is a way to choose which picture you want to see as the thumbnail...

The solution is to use the tool Tag&Rename. This shareware was actually made to manage and edit your mp3 music collection but it has also the feature to change the cover art of mp4 and wmv files - other types like avi are unfortunately not even readable.

The edit overview

As you can see in the screenshot above the handling of this tool is quite easy. Just go through the folders to select the mp4 file where you want to change the thumbnail and 'right-click' to select 'Edit File Tag'.

Now you need a file for the cover art where I would recommend to use the snapshot feature of the VLC media player (in case you want to use a screenshot from the video clip...) .

After you have chosen the picture for the thumbnail drag & drop it into the space for the cover art (as seen in the screenshot). Finally you only have to confirm it with "Save" and it's done.