Experience the ease of using Castr VOD Hosting, which allows you to upload MP4 files and receive an HTML5 player along with the embed URL for seamless video streaming on various OTT delivery platforms such as Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and many more.
In This Article:
Settings
Advertising
Paywall
Hosting Video on Demand on Castr
1. Log in to the Castr Dashboard.
2. From the sidebar navigation, go to the 'Content Library' tab.
3. Create a 'New Folder' as shown below.
4. In the newly created folder, choose the "New Video" option to initiate the process of adding videos. Other available options include:
"From your computer": This allows you to upload a video file directly from your device.
"Cloud import": This enables you to import a video file from platforms like Dropbox.
5. Once a video is uploaded, it will show up like this.
Folder Settings
In the folder detail view, you have the capability to adjust that are applicable to all videos stored within the designated folder from the Folder Settings.
These include the following global settings:
In the 'Settings' tab, you will find two options for your player.
Player Settings:
Player Theme Color: Adjust the stream player's theme color: Change the color scheme of the player used for streaming.
Enable Google Analytics: Activate Google Analytics integration: Enhance your understanding of the stream's performance by connecting Castr with Google Analytics. Discover more about this feature. Learn more
Security: The security settings are applied to all videos that are uploaded to the same folder. In this section, you have the option to activate password protection, apply geo/country blocking, define geo/country whitelisting, and enable domain whitelisting for the HTML5 player.
Advertising: Set up your in-stream ads and add them to your VOD files on Castr here. You have the flexibility to upload the video and decide the precise timing for the advertisement to appear during your stream. For further details on the advertising feature, refer to this resource.
Paywall: Castr's Paywall feature empowers you to generate revenue from your VOD content by implementing viewer charges. For additional information, please refer to this resource.
Video Settings
In this view, you have the capability to obtain the URL for the embedded player, along with the iframe code snippet, and perform various additional actions. The features under each section are:
Embed: This tab houses all the URL links available for this video. The links are:
Iframe URL
Direct Player link
HLS URL: Shareable HLS URL for the video. This option is available upon request and is limited Ultra plans only.
MP4 URL: Shareable MP4 URL for the video. This option is available upon request and is limited Ultra plans only.
Player: This tab houses all the settings for the player.
Autoplay: Enabling this will make the player start playing the content right away upon loading.
Loop: Enabling this will restart the video once it reaches its conclusion.
Muted: Enabling this will load the video in a muted state, allowing the viewer to unmute it later.
Hide Controls: Enabling this will hide all player controls.
Show Title: Display video title overlay.
Playback Speed Rate: Enabling this will allow the viewer to set the playback speeds so that they can enjoy the video at their preference.
Hide Overlay Play button: This will hide the play button which is shown as overlay on the player. The play button on the control bar will still be present.
Audio Only: This option is exclusively available for Live-to-VOD files. Enabling it will generate a URL for a player that exclusively plays audio.
Hide Audio button: This will hide the play button which is shown as overlay on the player. The play button on the control bar will still be present
Enable Social Share: Allow your viewers to easily share the content to social media.
Watermark: Upload watermark image for the video and set the placement for the watermark.
Chapters: This feature will enable you to create chapters within your video, providing viewers with a seamless navigation experience to jump directly to desired sections. Learn more
Captions: By activating this feature, automatic captions will be generated and seamlessly integrated into your video. Learn more
Clip: This will allow you to trim the most important part of your video and save it as a separate video file. This feature permits you to trim the most crucial parts of your video, creating and saving it as a separate video file.
Schedule: This will allow your video to be available for certain time making it exclusive. Learn more
Analytics: This feature will grant you comprehensive insights into the performance and engagement metrics of your video. Learn more
Metadata: Title, descriptions, thumbnail, end embed poster and watermark for the video can be added here.
Title: Set title for the video
Description: Set description for the video
Media Assets:
Poster: It will show up at the beginning of a video. It will not show up if Autoplay is enabled.
Animated Poster: Animated poster can be uploaded here.
End Embed Poster: This will show up once the video has ended.
Tags: Add the necessary tags for each video so that they can be quickly filtered later.
Replace: This feature allows you to effortlessly substitute the current video with another while retaining the same embedded URL, eliminating the need to update your website with a new URL.
Download: The video can be downloaded with this button.
Folder: Move videos between folders easily using this feature.
Video Details: Size, resolution, FPS and codecs of the file can be viewed here.
Note:
To enable HLS URLs for your account, kindly reach out to our support team via Live Chat. HLS URL support is available and accessible starting with the Premium plan.
Storage usage includes uploaded content and all transcoded versions.
What's Next?