Many online video providers recommend settings that you should configure prior to uploading a video to their service—the file format, codec, an optimal frame rate and bitrate, etc. Typically these changes are made whenever you export the file from your video editing or creation tool.
Vidyard handles the optimization of these video settings for you.
Whenever you upload a video to Vidyard, we begin a process called encoding that ensures your video can be watched at the highest allowable quality that also maintains a continuous playback experience.
This article provides details about supported video formats, adaptive streaming (HLS), as well as the expected output for videos uploaded to Vidyard's encoding service.
Supported video formats
Vidyard supports a comprehensive range of video formats and codecs commonly used on the web. Below is a list of some of the common containers/codecs that work nicely with Vidyard, but it is by no means an exhaustive list:
| Containers | WEBM, MP4, MKV, MOV |
| Codecs | H.264, H.265, ProRes 422, VP8, VP9 |
Note: Videos with multiple audio tracks must be uploaded in H.264/AAC as an .mp4
File sizes
- Vidyard Free and Pro users can upload videos with a maximum file size of 5GB. All other packages allow you to upload videos with a maximum file size of 16GB.
- Videos uploaded to Vidyard via the dashboard API have no size limit.
Output settings for videos uploaded to Vidyard
Whenever you upload a video to Vidyard, we'll begin to encode the video and optimize it for playback on the web. The optimized version of your video will have the following settings once the encoding process is complete:
| Video |
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| Audio |
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| Resolutions |
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Adaptive streaming (HLS)
Vidyard uses HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) to deliver the highest quality version of your video at any given time.
Whenever you upload a video file to Vidyard, the encoding process makes available several different versions of the same video at different resolution qualities. This allows Vidyard to dynamically adjust the quality of the stream based on the available internet speed of the viewer. As the available bandwidth fluctuates, the quality of stream will adapt to ensure continuous playback without buffering.
Unless the viewer selects a particular resolution from the settings menu on the player, Vidyard will automatically choose the highest quality version of the video that the internet connection can support.
The quality of playback is also impacted by the embed size of the video. For example, if the size of your embedded video is 384x216, it is not an efficient use of bandwidth to serve a high resolution 2160p video in a container of that size. However, if the viewer enters fullscreen we will adjust to the highest available quality that the internet connection can support.
Output settings for videos recorded with Vidyard
You can record your own videos with Vidyard, either through the Vidyard Chrome extension or a number of integrated applications and products that support the Vidyard app—Gmail, Outlook, SalesLoft, Outreach, Zendesk + many more.
Videos created through these tools are immediately encoded and uploaded to your library. Recorded videos have the following output settings:
| Container | WEBM |
| Codecs | VP9/OPUS |
| Frame rate | Minimum of 25fps |
| Bitrate | Determined by your computer's available system and browser resources |
| Resolution | For camera recordings, Vidyard will create a 360p, 480p, and 720p version of the video. For screen and tab recordings, Vidyard will produce a 720p version of the video. |
Trouble uploading a video?
The Vidyard uploader is designed to handle a broad range of video formats, containers and codecs. If the file you want to upload to Vidyard is not supported, or even if the quality of the uploaded video doesn't turn out quite right, try running your video through Handbrake.
HandBrake is a free tool that allows you to convert video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs. We recommend exporting your video in H.264/AAC as an .mp4 file.