Logos Instead of Screenshots for Video Library

Replace the default screenshot thumbnails in your Media Center video library with your own logos or icons.

Special thanks to Cheetah05 who orignally wrote this guide.  The original version was posted on The Green Button here.  It has been reposted to Media Center Guides with the permission of the original author.

This is my directory structure for the inbuilt video library. I have two folders which have the videos in them, one named "Movies", one named "TV Series". No plugins are used here.

TV Series Structure

This is the general structure for how the videos are stored. I hope you can make sense of this:

\TV Series\[Series Name]\Season [Season Number]\[Series Name] - [Season Number]x[Episode Number] - [Episode Name].[Extension]

E.g. \TV Series\Chuck\Season 1\Chuck - 1x01 - Pilot.avi

For renaming your video files to include the episode numbers and titles I use this piece of software: Media Renamer.

To get the pictures to show up in the "Video Library" I do the following:

\TV Series\folder.jpg

this image is just an image to represent the fact is the TV Series folder.

\TV series\[Series Name]\folder.jpg

E.g. \TV Series\Chuck\folder.jpg

this image is in every series folder, with a unique image to represent the series which is shown by the example below. Every folder has its own "folder.jpg". You can set the images to "hidden" if you want in Windows Explorer so they don't show when looking at the directory.

Here is an example of the "folder.jpg" image used for the "Chuck" series folder. These are created manually as they need to be in the same ratio (2:1) as the image below:

You can go on further to create individual images for all of the different seasons within a series, but I didn't and just let Vista create the standard thumbnail previews for the folders and videos as seen in the images below:

As you can see these are very low quality, but they do the job. I wonder if there is anyway to get Vista to make higher quality thumbnails?

Movies Structure

All the movies are in the root movie folder and named as follows:

\Movies\[Movie Name] ([4 digit Movie Year]).[Extension] 

E.g. \Movies\Meet the Spartans (2008).mkv

The movie name and year is copied exact from: IMDB.

To get the pictures to show up in the "Video Library" I do the following:

\Movies\folder.jpg

this image is just an image to represent the fact is the TV Series folder.

\Movies\[Movie Name] ([4 digit Movie Year]).jpg 

E.g. \Movies\Meet the Spartans (2008).jpg

this is the image that will be displayed instead of the video preview thumbnail that you usually get in Video Library and there is a unique image for each movie. These again can be set to "hidden" so they don't appear in Windows Explorer if you want. IT MUST have the same name as the movie!

Here is an example of the "Meet the Spartans (2008).jpg" image used for the "Meet the Spartans (2008).mkv" movie. These are created manually as they need to be in the same ratio (4:3) as the image below:

If after you have completed all the steps correctly, you still get the original video thumbnail previews instead of your new movie art images, you may have to clear the thumbnail cache!  Details of how to do so are in the next section.

Clearing Thumbnail Cache

If you need to clear your thumbnail cache, here are the steps on how to do so. Every step must be followed, otherwise it may not work:

1. Start Vista in Safe Mode.
2. Click Start and then Run.
3. Type the following into the textbox:
   %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player
4. Click OK and a folder showing you your library files will appear.
5. Erase all the files and folders. (Select All -> Delete).
6. Cut the movies and the accompanying movie-art* and paste them in a new temporary folder that you create on the same drive (should be an instant cut & paste if you have done this step correctly).
7. Delete the original movies folder.
8. Rename the temporary folder to what you want - in my case it was the same name as the original movies folder named "Movies".
9. Run a disk cleanup on the drive you installed Vista too, de-select all the check boxes apart from the "Thumbnail cache" box and run the cleanup.
10. Restart into Normal Windows.
11. Open Microsoft Media Player.
12. Push F3.
13. Select the locations for you media files you wish to add.
14. WMP will reindex all your media.