Overview
Video files are increasingly becoming one of the most common file types uploaded and shared with Egnyte. With the current Egnyte’s Web UI preview capabilities, a user can see only video formats natively supported for preview in the user’s web browser, primarily MP4 files with H.264 encoded video and either AAC or MP3 encoded audio streams (with video file sizes limited to 500MB).
Advanced Video Playback feature makes available:
- Support for additional formats such as MOV, WMV, AVI, MPEG, M4V.
- Support for previews of video files up to 2GB and 90 minutes replay duration.
- Video streaming to reduce bandwidth and to make it easier to search within a video file.
- Video preview on Preview-Only file and Folder links.
Features
Video Streaming
Videos will be streamed to the user as an HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) stream, streaming just enough of the video to watch. The user can click on a different section of the video, and the player will skip to that portion and buffer the content
In order to enable video streaming retroactively (for files uploaded before activation of Advance Video Playback), transcoding of video files is triggered at the first preview request for each given file. After transcoding completion, the transcoded video remains immediately available for all subsequent preview requests.
Supported Video Formats
The following video formats are supported:
- mov, avi, wmv, mp4, mpeg, m4v
Video Resolution
Transcoded videos will be generated at a 720p resolution. Higher resolution videos will be downscaled, while smaller videos will be kept at their original size.
Maximum Video Size/Length
The maximum size for videos that will be transcoded is 2GB or 90 minutes of video. Larger videos (either size or length) will not be transcoded.
Video Preview on Preview-Only File and Folder Links
With Advanced Video Replay, video preview is also available for Preview-Only file and folder links (files folder shared through links with Download option set to ‘No’). For more information about Preview-Only File and Folder link see here.
Known Limitations
Limitation: Transcoding speed
Transcoding speed of videos depends on various factors, including total file size as well as resolution and other factors and may take up to several minutes in certain cases. While Egnyte is continuously working on improving the transcoding performance overall, certain video files might temporarily be delivered natively (non streamed, as a full file download) to the browser cache and using the browsers built-in video player in order to enable a faster preview start for users (only applies to videos which are being in transcoding process).
In case transcoded videos are not yet available and videos cannot be previewed natively, an error message is displayed.
Limitation: G Suite-backed domains are not yet supported
The feature is not yet supported for G Suite-backed domains.
Limitation: Preview delay
It takes time to transcode videos to another format, so video preview is not available immediately for video files. Usually, videos will be previewable a few minutes after upload, but larger/longer videos will take more time.
Limitation: Web-only + Android App
Support for Advanced Video Preview is currently limited to the Web UI. The support of this feature has been added to the Android App (Egnyte 8.12 or higher). iOS support is not available yet.