Create Video Derivatives

Summary

A derivative is a variation of the original asset either an image or video asset. Very often a derivative is a smaller version of the original asset.  Derivatives can be implemented into external websites and systems. Using smaller versions instead of high-quality files makes your videos load faster and will improve the end-user experience. Setting up derivatives can also be a huge time saver since all the variations and modifications can be automatically made in your Bynder portal during upload. Users will no longer have to download the files first, to then edit and re-upload them.

You can set up your permission to allow users to download derivatives and/or the original file.

Who?

  • Portal Administrators: Responsible for requesting custom derivative configurations and managing download permissions.
  • Content Creators & Users: Individuals with permission to download specific derivatives or the original file.
  • Note: Configuring custom video derivatives or changing default resolutions (480p or 1080p) requires assistance from Customer Support.

Why?

  • Performance: Using smaller derivatives instead of high-quality original files improves loading speeds on external platforms.
  • Efficiency: Automating derivatives during the upload process saves time, eliminating the need to download, manually edit, and re-upload files.
  • Protection: Watermarked derivatives allow you to protect intellectual property when assets are shared externally.
  • Consistency: Standardized preview playback (e.g., 720p or 1080p) ensures all users see a consistent version of the asset within the portal.

How?

Managing Default Video Derivatives

The default video derivative is used for preview playback in Bynder. By default, the maximum video quality for video previews is 720p for the Asset Bank, however, 480p, 1080p are also possible.

For video previews in Workflow, the default video quality is 1080p. The default video quality in Workflow cannot be adjusted. If you want to change the resolution of video previews to 480p or 1080p, please contact Customer Support.

Supported Video Formats and Processing Pipeline

Video files uploaded to Asset Workflow use the same conversion pipeline as the Asset Bank.

We support the following source video file types:

  • .3G2, .3GP, .3GPP, .AVI, .F4V, .FLV, .M2TS, .M2V, .M4V, .MKV, .MOV, .MPEG, .MTS, .OGV, .TS, .VOB, .WEBM, .WMV

All supported video file types can be converted into either of the following output formats:

  • MP4: H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec

  • WebM: VP9 video codec and Ogg Vorbis audio codec

Requesting and Configuring Custom Video Derivatives

To set up custom video derivatives, prepare your specifications and contact Customer Support.

  1. Define your derivative dimensions:

    • Keep original dimensions, or

    • Set a specific width and height in pixels up to a maximum of 4096 x 4096 px.

    • Note: Specifying only the "Long side" is not supported for video derivatives.

  2. Choose your resizing or cropping behavior:

    • Proportional Resize: If you define one dimension without selecting crop, the video scales proportionally to your selected width or height.

    • Crop: If you select crop, the video is cropped to your exact dimensions without preserving the original aspect ratio.

  3. Select your bitrate quality settings:

    • Variable Bit Rate (VBR): Values range from 0% to 100%. We recommend setting VBR to 80% for balanced quality and compression. This setting applies to both video and audio tracks.

    • Constant Bit Rate (CBR): Set explicit bitrates for video (16 to 62,000 kbit/s) and audio (32 to 320 kbit/s).

  4. Determine visibility and naming rules:

    • Decide whether the derivative should be publicly accessible via direct URL.

    • Select a derivative prefix name. The derivative name cannot contain spaces or special characters.

    • Note: Frame rates and audio sample rates are inherited directly from the original source file and cannot be modified.

  5. Contact Bynder Customer Support: Submit your documented settings to Customer Support to enable the configuration in your portal.

  6. Set download permissions:

    1. Navigate to Settings > Users & rights > Permission Management.

    2. Grant permission to the appropriate user profiles for the new derivative. 

Please note:

  • Derivative Name/Prefix does not allow spaces or special characters
  • Frame rate, sample rate etc. are automatic based on the input file and cannot be adjusted

Utilizing Manual and Watermarked Derivatives

  • The manual derivative feature allows you to make customizations outside of Bynder and then easily upload them back to Bynder as a manual derivative. 
  • You can apply a watermark to your video derivatives to protect your assets used on external sites.  

Storage Considerations

Both image and video derivatives are stored in your portal and, therefore, count toward your storage. 

Recommended Video Derivative Sizes

We recommend configuring the following standard video derivatives:

  • Original: Preserves the original file dimensions, frame rate, and container.

  • Large: MP4 container at 1920 x 1080 px using H.264/AAC for general HD playback.

Read more about all the supported output file formats here.

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