How to grab a thumbnail frame from a video — ffmpeg

You need one still image — a poster or thumbnail — from a specific moment in the video.

ffmpeg -ss 00:00:05 -i input.mp4 -vframes 1 poster.jpg
# -ss before -i = fast seek to that timestamp

FFmpeg Cheatsheet one-page card — 28 commands that actually work — The full one-page card — FFmpeg Cheatsheet. Get the complete cheatsheet on GitHub