Supported video and audio formats

We always recommend that you upload videos to Flowplayer to leverage our optimized encoding and delivery. Please review our information about recommended video formats for uploading and recommended settings for livestreaming if you want to take advantage of our video and livestreaming encoding services.

In case you want to host the files yourself we have recommendations about which files and formats to use below. You can also read more about hosting your own videos and playing them in Flowplayer in remote video assets, remote livesterams or advanced video publishing.

Pre-requisites for self-hosted videos

If you use external sources, make sure they’re encoded correctly and to define the correct MIME type.

Please refer to the HTML5 video format support matrix and HTML5 audio format support matrix for an overview which formats have the best browser support.

Video formats

HLS

We recommend that if you want to play your own video files you use HLS as your primary file format. HLS offers adaptive bitrate streaming (e.g. it will adapt to your available Internet connection speed and deliver the best quality). HLS is supported on almost any device and modern browser using Flowplayer.

Please make sure your streams meet the technical requirements, and use the application/x-mpegurl src and MIME type.

You can find more information about HLS in these locations:

DASH

We also support DASH in the player with the use of the dash.js plugin but due to the currently limited support on browsers/devices we only recommend DASH for the most advanced customers since this choice will require multiple encoding formats to enable playback across devices.

MP4 (MPEG-4 part 10)

We also recommend that you create an MP4 version of the file for maximum compatibility with those few devices or browsers which do not support HLS. We recommend that there is one MP4 version encoded in standard resolution (480p) to ensure it will play on any html5 video capable device. We recommend using video codec H.264 and audio codec AAC with the MOOV atom at the beginning of the file. Make sure to use the video/MP4 src and MIME type.

WebM (VP8 / VP9)

WebM is supported for external sources, though it is usually not required anymore now that almost any browser supports MP4. For external sources you can configure WebM with the video/webm src and MIME type.

OGG / OGV (Theora)

OGV is outdated by now and should not be used anymore. If you have a special requirement to do so in an external source, please use the video/ogg src and MIME type.

Audio formats

In case you want to play audio only files we support the below formats through the use of our audio plugin.

MP3

Flowplayer support playback of MP3 files across most modern HTML5 browsers.

AAC

Flowplayer support playback of AAC files across most modern HTML5 browsers.

Audio codecs of MP4 video files

All audio tracks in MP4 videos should use AAC