The original title is: "Building a Video Thumbnail Generator Service in Go With FFmpeg and Sprite Sheets"

Short summary

A detailed walkthrough of building a Go-based video thumbnail service using FFmpeg, covering poster frames, hover-preview sprite sheets, and Open Graph images. The author explains why input seeking (-ss before -i) is critical for performance, how to avoid CPU-bound feedback loops under load, and why generating thumbnails once asynchronously into content-addressed storage beats per-request extraction. Includes runnable FFmpeg commands and architectural guidance for production video platforms.

• •FFmpeg input seeking (-ss before -i) is O(1) vs output seeking which decodes every frame
• •Generate thumbnails once asynchronously into content-addressed storage; serve static files from cache
• •Concurrent FFmpeg processes create CPU feedback loops that cause outages under traffic spikes

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