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YouTube TV is Improving Thumbnail Preview While You Fast Forward

Jason Gurwin
Jason Gurwin has has spent the last 10 years in the technology, media, entertainment industries. For The Streamable, he specializes in all things media like streaming services, devices, and cord cutting.
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Jason Gurwin

According to reports on Reddit, YouTube TV is rolling out an improved preview window while you fast-forward. The main improvement is the size of the preview window which is more than double than it was before. While it is not available to all users quite yet, subscribers have seen the feature on Apple TV, Roku, Android TV, and Xbox. The feature, which can be rolled out with a software update, should roll out to all users, across devices in the next few days.

Comparison of Thumbnail Preview

Source: Techive/Reddit.

One gripe from the community is the new behavior of the live stream while scrubbing. Previously, your live feed would continue to play as you skipped ahead. Now, the stream pauses until you finish scrubbing through the show. One additional nice enhancement is that the skip ahead time is no longer fixed at just 15 seconds. Now, it will accelerate as you’re scrubbing, making it easier to go through long recordings.

If you notice a different quality of the thumbnail preview, that’s because it depends of what you’re watching. If the stream is live or recently recorded, the thumbnail won’t be as crisp as those from VOD or older recordings.

This feature has become more common across services. Depending on your platform, thumbnail previews are also available on Sling TV, Philo, Fubo, Hulu Live TV, and is currently being tested on PlayStation Vue.

Jason Gurwin
Jason Gurwin has has spent the last 10 years in the technology, media, entertainment industries. For The Streamable, he specializes in all things media like streaming services, devices, and cord cutting.
Read full bio ›
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