Knowledge base

You may chain multiple videos from your VOD space together (either an entire directory automatically, or by selecting individual videos) into a playlist of your choice, for example to create an "as-live" WebTV channel, where the stream is played back synchronously to all viewers, even though the stream is not actually broadcast live.

Actions to be carried out

You generate a playlist from videos located in a folder set up within your VOD space and playback will occur "as alive", and from then on incorporated into our video streaming system (but although the stream will be viewed synchronously by all viewers, the stream is not produced live).

Several display modes are available, allowing you to chose the most appropriate streaming method for your project. A distinction is made, for example, between:

• "Live" streaming (simulates "as live" broadcasting, synchronised to the current UTC time, and hence the playback position will be the same on all clients across different time zones)
• "Normale" streaming (videos are played back one after the other, with the timeline indicating the total duration)
• "Sequential" streaming (videos are played back one after the other, with the timeline indicating the duration of the current video)
  • every time a new video is uploaded (including via the SOAP API)
  • whenever a video is enabled/disabled
  • whenever a video or folder is deleted/restored
  • whenever a video is moved
  • whenever a video is copied
  • whenever a video is cut (both parts) or spliced back together
Videos may be sorted by various criteria (Date, Name, Duration, Hits, Random).

Playlists are dynamic: whenever you perform an action elsewhere in your VOD space, any playlists affected will be updated automatically. For example:
In all cases, any videos affected will be repositioned with respect to the specified sorting criteria for the playlist in question.



More information
Videos may be added to playlists with the usual criteria (choice of player, basic settings, etc).

Playlists are compatible with the option to toggle playback quality on the fly (except for "as live" streams) but the default quality setting in the player section still serves as a reference for encoding.
   
Exporting to Facebook, Twitter and via HTML is possible (provided the function is enabled in the corresponding player).

This guide explains how to transfer an Infomaniak product from one client account to another.

Generating the transfer link for the product to be transferred

1. Open this page with the login details for the account that contains the product(s) to be transferred (this will only function if you are in the right client account, connected with a user who has sufficient administrative rights)
   
2. Click Transfer products
3. Tick the product(s) to be transferred
4. Read and accept the Terms and conditions
5. Click Transfer
6. Copy the transfer link or send it to the email address of your choice

Importing the product into the chosen account

Open the link you have copied or from the email with the login details of the client account

1. If necessary, choose the destination account using the drop-down menu
2. Read and accept the Terms and conditions
3. Click Receive products (if the button is not clickable, make sure you have selected the destination account)

When playing a video embedded on a page, the "Suspended Account" message is displayed when a VOD/AOD product to which the video belongs, has been blocked. There can be various reasons for this suspension, therefore quickly contact the VOD/AOD space administrator for more information.

To manage the interface between your VOD/AOD space and your CMS, we have developed a plugin that is compatible with WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. It enables:

• the retrieval and management of all your videos
• automatic updates when new videos are added
• automatic recovery of existing players
• importing audio/video files directly from the CMS administration
• playlist management
• automatic video search while writing a page or article

Install the VOD extension for your CMS

WordPress module (click here to download)
Joomla module (click here to download)
Drupal Module (click here to download)

The information on your VOD space and the plugin adapted to your CMS can be found in your Manager.
Go to your VOD space under CMS/API extensions

Connect the extension with your VOD space

For security reasons, it is not recommended to provide the plugin with your existing VOD login details. It is more prudent to create a new user in your VOD admin interface and assign it "API" rights only. This is the login information (e-mail address and interface login password) that you will supply to the plugin, along with the unique login ID for your VOD space.

It is possible to add an image that will appear on your video. You can either accomplish this using some rules that are specific to an import folder or from a video player's configuration.

If you use the player (online video player), the logo appears superimposed over the video. The logo is only added by the player at the time it is displayed. The advantage of this method is that the logo can be changed whenever you wish, and this allows you to have several players directed to the same video without any problem. This is the recommended method in order to have a solution that is easy to work with and is upgradeable.

The overlaying of the logo that is present in the folder section is, as its name indicates, an actual overlay in the video. This is far less flexible since once it has been overlaid, you cannot change it at all. It goes without saying that there will be no point in regretting overlaying a logo once it changes a few years later...

These two methods are different and do not work at the same time, and so if you activate them simultaneoulsy, you will have the logo of the player on top of the overlaid logo.

It is possible to add chapters to a video that has been uploaded to your VOD/AOD and customise the menu display (small thumbnail, title + description, large thumbnail, etc.).

Actions to be carried out

Log into your control panel
Go to your VOD/AOD space in Media
Click on the video in question then go to the Chaptering tab
On the timeline (Fig. 1, pt. 1) or player (Fig. 1, pt. 2), drag the playback position
Once you have reached the desired position, click on 'New Chapter'
You may also double-click on the lower timeline to create a chapter
A chapter can only be positioned on a key frame (Fig. 1, pt. 3)
To view the key frames, click on the symbol (Fig. 1, pt. 4) and zoom in if necessary.
Step from one key frame to another (Fig. 1, pt. 5 and pt. 6) to fine-tune the position
Enter a title, description, set a thumbnail, etc.
Save the chapter and it is automatically added to the chapter list
Once all chapters are ready, click Publish on Line (as well as after any change)

Illustrated steps

Fig. 1


Adding a chapter to a video

More information

The video file must be MP4 encoded in order to edit (create + modify) chapters. Chapter editing will not be possible for FLV videos but these will still display chapters in the video player if the video has also been MP4 encoded alongside. If the MP4 video is deleted, chapters will still remain in place on the FLV but without the option to edit them.

As the iPhone (but not the iPad) handles video playback itself, chapters are not currently visible on iPhone.

It is not possible to use this tool for audio-only media.

For information ont he SOAP API, please read https://statslive.infomaniak.com/vod/api/#exemple7

Our administration interface remains a panel for webmaster/people in charge of the product and wasn't conceived as a content management system (CMS).

For a user to only be able to send videos and retrieve their integration code (without having access to other videos or to a player's settings for example), you need to work around the tools that are in place. There are two possibilities:

1. upload via FTP : simple to set up and can be automated but it's necessary to use FTP software
2. update via a flash/HTML form module: needs to be implemented via the API on a page of your site, but can be done very easily in a CMS or a pre-existing admin

The other advantage of this second method is that it enables you to define a different file name to the one sent by the user.

To retrieve the integration code, there are also various possible methods:

1. use the default integration code (under "Folders" -> "Integration" -> "3. Integration code", code which will always remain the same, and within which it is enough to insert the name of the video), but be careful because the name of the file may vary slightly from the one that was sent (cleaning of accents, special characters, ...)
2. use the callback to retrieve the video details, including the integration code
3. use the API once the encoding is over, so as to retrieve the integration code (getIFrameImplementation())

It isn't possible to automatically generate two different sizes (738x388 and 131x70 for example) for video thumbnails.

By default, 2 different thumbnail sizes are generated for each video. However their sizes aren't directly cutomizable. The first thumbnail has a fixed size of 200x120 pixels and the second depends upon the encoding resolution you want. In other words:

1. Small sized thumbnail: 200x120
2. Big sized thumbnail: maximum output resolution requested

The size of these thumbnails doesn't depend upon the source but upon the exporting formats that have been set. The preload image takes the size of the largestt format to be encoded. This allows to have a preload picture corresponding to the video that you wish to integrate (same resolution, format, ...).

For the other resolutions, you can retrieve the maximum picture via Curl/wget and resize it on your website.

In your VOD space, under Import media, you can import audio and video files

1. from an external URL
2. using a Flash application (1 GB max)
3. via FTP (4 GB max)
4. via an API

Note that an encoding option allows you to carry out some particular encodings only if the source video's resolution is high enough. This avoids unnecessary upscales if the source is in SD.

Supported video formats are 3gp, asf, avi, f4v, flv, m2ts, m2v, m4v, mkv, mov, mp4, mpeg, mpg, rm, ts, webm, wmv

Supported audio formats are: aac, flac, m4a, mp2, mp3, ogg, tta, vob, wav, wma

To find out why the newly uploaded video is distorted and/or isn't generated in the desired format, it is necessary to analyse the files that have to be uploaded, and also to carry out a few tests.

In some cases you may realise that a video that is visually in 16/9 format (1024x576 for example) is in fact only a 4/3 video (720x576). This is due to the fact that the file has a L/H ratio in anamorphic type pixels, thus each pixel isn't square but rectangular. In general, you may notice this when opening the file with Quicktime and then VLC, as these programs don't interpret it in the same way.

The problem is that when the video is converted using the VOD tool, it is in square pixels, finally with a 4/3 ratio, even if the encoding is set for 16/9.

Define an encoding rule with a format that "forces the resolution" (dropdown menu under "format") as well as the 16/9 dimensions — 640x360.

The basic conversions use the Letterbox mode, which means that the videos you send in 4/3 will remain in 4/3 even if the requested dimensions are 16/9. If you adjust this setting to the "Force resolution" mode and then specify 16/9 dimensions, you will in the end obtain a file with the desired dimensions.