VideoPlayer.ai accepts the common consumer and producer video formats and transcodes them into HLS for playback. You can upload almost anything that came out of a phone, camera, screen recorder, or editor.
Containers and codecs
| Container | Video codecs | Audio codecs |
|---|---|---|
| MP4 | H.264, H.265 (HEVC), AV1 | AAC, MP3, Opus |
| MOV | H.264, H.265 (HEVC), ProRes | AAC, PCM |
| MKV | H.264, H.265 (HEVC), VP9, AV1 | AAC, Opus, Vorbis |
| WebM | VP8, VP9, AV1 | Opus, Vorbis |
| AVI | H.264, MJPEG (older sources) | AAC, MP3, PCM |
If your file falls outside this list, VideoPlayer.ai still tries to transcode it. Failures show up as a "failed" status in your library with a reason. Most failures are corrupted files or content protected by DRM.
Output
Regardless of the input, VideoPlayer.ai produces:
- An HLS adaptive-bitrate stream for browsers that support it
- An MP4 fallback for browsers and contexts that do not handle HLS
- A poster image generated from a frame near the start of the video
- An automatic caption track if the audio contains speech
You can replace the poster from the dashboard. You can edit the caption track. You can re-transcode by uploading a new version.
Audio-only and image-only files
VideoPlayer.ai is built for video. Audio-only files (MP3, M4A, FLAC) and image files are not accepted. If you need to host audio, use a podcast host. If you need to host static images, use an image host.
Aspect ratios
The player preserves the source aspect ratio. There is no forced 16:9 crop. Vertical (9:16), square (1:1), and ultrawide (21:9) all play correctly. The player letterboxes when needed.