About Video Playback

In Vault, you can upload videos as documents and play them back from the Doc Info page.

Video Renditions

Vault creates an MP4 format rendition file for each uploaded video file. Video conversion can take a while, so you’ll receive a notification when it’s complete. Vault automatically opens the video rendition in the Doc Info page. With the appropriate permissions, you can also download these renditions or the original source file.

Vault also generates a thumbnail for the Library using a still image from the 2-second point in your video file.

Using Video Playback Controls

Icons in the video’s control bar allow you to play or pause your video, go back 10 seconds, or adjust the audio volume. Vault displays the current timestamp and total length of the video in the control bar. You can drag the slider on the video progress bar to move forwards or backwards in the video.

You can modify the playback speed of videos by clicking the plus (+) icon to speed up by one increment, or the minus (-) icon to slow down by one increment, within a set of defined speeds:

  • 0.25x
  • 0.5x
  • 0.75x
  • 1x (default)
  • 1.25x
  • 1.5x
  • 2x

Vault displays the current playback speed next to the speedometer icon in the control bar.

Use the fullscreen icon to view the video in fullscreen mode. To return to Vault, click the fullscreen icon again or hit the escape button on your keyboard.

Supported Files

Vault supports these video file formats:

  • ASF (.asf)
  • AVI (.avi)
  • MPEG (.mpg, .mpeg)
  • MPEG-4 (.mp4)
  • QuickTime (.mov, .m4v)
  • WMV (.wmv)

Vault also renders animated GIF (.gif), AVIF (.avif), HEIF (.heif), HEIC (.heic), and WebP (.webp) images as videos.

Uploaded files must have a file size within 100 GB and length within two hours. For an optimal experience, we also recommend keeping the following video profile:

  • Frame Rate: Up to 60 FPS
  • Bitrate: Up to 8 Mbps
  • Resolution: Up to 1440p or 2K

Vault does not support any protected MPEG-4 formats. For Vault to create a rendition, you must convert these files into an unprotected format before uploading.

Annotations & Comments

Annotations

Video annotations provide a robust way to interact with and provide feedback on videos. You can create image note or image link annotations associated with a specific time in the video. You can also mention users directly at specific locations on videos. See Annotating Videos for details.

Comments

You can also use document-level comments to provide general feedback on videos if this feature is enabled for your Vault.

When entering comments, you can include timestamps. If you enter a comment during video playback, Vault automatically inserts a timestamp in the comment field. When the video is paused or not playing, you can enter a timestamp manually using the format @MM:SS (@00:32) or @HH:MM:SS (@01:02:32). These timestamps become links which skip to the specified time in the video. If the timestamp uses an invalid time (@00:45 in a 30-second video) or the format is wrong (@00:35), Vault does not create the link.

Sorting Comments

You can sort video comments by the creation date or video timestamps. To sort comments, select Creation Date (Oldest First) or Video Timestamp from the Sort by drop-down list. Note that Creation Date (Oldest First) is the default selection.

Simultaneous Views Restriction

Vault no longer limits the number of users who can simultaneously view a video. Some videos may still encounter a warning when multiple users try to view simultaneously. If this happens, re-render the video to remove the restriction. This also removes the restriction for all subsequent views.

Multiple Streams

If there are multiple streams in a video source file, Vault treats the first video/audio file stream as the main stream.

GoToMeeting Recordings

Vault does not support the default GoToMeeting video format encoding (G2M3 and G2M4 codecs). For compatible GoToMeeting video recordings, use the format “Windows Media Player” (WMV3 codec).

About Transcoding

Transcoding is a process that happens behind the scenes after you upload a video. Although you don’t see the process happen, it is why videos are not immediately viewable on Vault after uploading. Once transcoding is finished, you and any other users with permission can view the video.

The most important reason for transcoding video files is to convert high quality formatted videos to a format that is easily sent over the internet and minimizes transmitting bandwidth. In addition, we need to target specific platforms (Adobe Flash, etc.) that support a limited set of formats. To do this, we must convert your media into a suitable and supported format.

Video Renditions and CDN

Since Vault 18R1, newly uploaded video documents generate video renditions which are stored on and served from AMZN CloudFront CDN. Video source files continue to be stored on and served from Vault. Some older video renditions are stilled served from Vault, but if you re-render them, the new rendition will be served from CloudFront.

Serving video from CloudFront CDN means that Vault customers can stream virtually unlimited concurrent video with better performance, regardless of location.

Embedded Videos

Vault displays video files embedded in documents as static images. Vault cannot play embedded videos in the document viewer.