With Castr VOD Hosting, you can upload MP4 files and get an HTML5 player and the embed URL to stream your videos on OTT delivery platforms such as Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and more.
In this article:
Settings
Advertising
Paywall
Playlist
Hosting Video on Demand on Castr
1. Log in to Castr Dashboard
2. From the sidebar navigation, go to the Video Hosting tab
3. Create a New Folder as shown below
You can create more folders by clicking on this icon from the sidebar.
4. In the new folder, click New Video to start adding videos or you can drag and drop:
Upload new video: Upload a video file from your device
Cloud import: Import a video file from Google Drive or Dropbox
Folder Detail View
In the Folder Detail view, you can set up global settings for all the videos residing in the folder. The global settings are:
In the Settings tab, you will find two options for your player.
Player Settings:
Player theme color: Change the theme color of the stream player
Enable Google Analytics: Get better insights into your stream by connecting Castr with Google Analytics. Learn more
Publish this Stream on the OTT app: Once we have published your OTT app upon request, you can add your stream to be published on your OTT app. You can learn more about it here.
Security: The Security settings are applied to all videos uploaded to the same folder. Here, you can enable password protection, geo/country-blocking, geo-country whitelisting, and domain whitelisting for the HTML5 player.
Advertising: Set up your in-stream ads and add it to your VOD files on Castr here. You can upload the video and decide when the ad will play on your stream. Learn more about the advertising feature here.
Paywall: Castr's Paywall will charge your viewers for access to the VOD content they want. Castr takes no percentage from your income. You can learn more about it here.
Playlist: Castr's Playlist allows you to create a playlist to group multiple videos into a single player that you can embed on your website. You can learn more here.
Video Detail View
To get to the Video Detail view, click on the arrow of the video.
In this view, you can grab the embed player URL along with the iframe snippet and do much more. The features are:
Embed Player Controls and URL
Embed URL & iframe snippet: You can grab the embed URL and iframe snippet easily by clicking on the buttons marked below.
Audio Only: This is available for Live-to-VOD files only. Toggling it on will generate URL for a player which will play audio only.
Responsive: This will generate an iframe snippet which is responsive. Toggling if off will generate a fixed iframe snippet.
Autoplay: This will make the player start playing the content right away upon loading.
Loop: This will restart the video once it ends.
Muted: This will load the video in a muted state, which the viewer can un-mute later.
Hide Controls: This will hide all the player controls.
Exciting Upcoming Features:
Chapters: This will allow you to create chapters in your video, making it easier for viewers to follow and jump to the section they desire.
Captions: This will generate captions for your video and will be integrated with your video automatically.
Analytics: This will allow you to dive deep into how well your video is doing.
Thumbnail: This will allow you to upload thumbnails for your video.
Stream as Live: This will allow you to make your video available at the embed URL at the scheduled time.
Replace: This feature will allow you to replace your current video with another but it will keep the same embed URL, thus you do not have to update your website with any new URL for the new video.
Clip/Trim: This will allow you to trim the most important part of your video and save it as a separate video file.
Note: Please contact us via Live Chat support to enable HLS URLs for your account. HLS URL support is available from the Premium plan onwards.
What's Next?