General concepts > Video encoding/streaming
DatoCMS natively supports video encoding and streaming, thanks to the integration with Mux, the fastest and most advanced cloud encoding platform for on-demand streaming video.
Every video you upload in your DatoCMS project will be instantly available for streaming. Videos are encoded while the first viewers watch them, giving you the fastest publishing time as possible. Encoded videos get cached on Mux's multi-CDN for future reuse as well.
DatoCMS can ingest almost every available codec including those for broadcast and professional applications (like H.264, H.265, VP9, and Apple ProRes) and thanks to HLS Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) streaming, every viewer will always download the right video size for its device and connection speed.
Uploading videos
You can upload videos just like you do with normal assets. From the interface you'll have access to some metadata and of course you'll be able to play the video straight away.
Then you can add a video to your models using the asset or asset gallery fields.
We also support integrations with embedded videos from YouTube/Vimeo/Facebook, but that's a separate field type.
To have an overview on the media area and its features, check out this video tutorial:
What gets exposed via the APIs
Our Content Delivery API, Content Management API and all of our API clients and integrations include:
HLS video streaming URL;
High, medium and low quality MP4 versions of the video to support legacy browsers that do not support HLS;
Duration and frame rate of the video;
Thumbnail URL: resizable, croppable and available in JPEG, PNG, and GIF format;
Getting a thumbnail image for the video
You can learn how to get a thumbnail for any uploaded video in Mux documentation. If you do not specify any parameter, Mux will pull out the thumbnail from the exact middle of your video.
Pricing and availability
Integration with MUX is available on all DatoCMS plans, each includes several minutes of encoding and streaming in the price. If you are on a paid plan, and you go over-quota, your website will not suffer any service interruption. At the end of the month, we’ll charge you for the difference.
What happens if you downgrade or cancel subscription?
Videos will be kept for 60 days after the subscription ends. After that, we'll delete the videos. If you then change your mind and reactivate the project, you will need to re-upload the videos.
This behavior is particular to videos, as they can be very big and expensive to retain. This does not apply to other assets or data in general.