Publishing a video
Each video that you publish gets its own player page on your page hostname. Kitset encodes the video on your Mac, then uploads it to your R2 bucket.
Start a publish
Use one of these ways:
- Drag a video file onto the Library window or the Upload window.
- Click Upload… in the bar at the bottom of the Library, then Choose Video….
- Choose File ▸ Open Video… (⌘O).
To add subtitles, drop a .vtt or .srt file together with the video. See Subtitles.
Kitset reads the file, then shows the confirm screen. Nothing uploads until you click Publish.
The confirm screen
Title, description and reference
- Title: the heading of the player page. Kitset suggests a title from the name of the file.
- Description: optional text under the player. It can have paragraphs, bold (⌘B), italic (⌘I) and links (⌘K). The Format menu has the same commands.
- Reference: optional text for your own records, for example a job number. The page does not show it. Kitset uses the reference to find a video again in a bulk upload.
The description also accepts Markdown as you type or paste it: **bold**, *italic*, _italic_ and [text](https://example.com). A web address that you type or paste becomes a link. To undo the link and keep the text, press ⌘Z.
Publish
- Site: the site that gets the video. Check it when your Mac has several sites.
- Visibility: Public or Unlisted. See Public or unlisted.
- Folder: the name of the folder in your bucket. It is also the end of the page address, for example
watch.example.com/summer-launch. - Upload speed: a limit for this upload. You can change it while the video uploads.
Kitset makes the folder name from the title, with lowercase letters, digits and single hyphens. It removes words such as 1080p and 4k. When a folder of that name exists, Kitset adds -1, -2 and so on. The line under the section shows the folder that the video goes to.
Audio
The Audio loudness menu sets the level of the sound. It starts with the default of the site. See Audio loudness. A video with no audio has no menu.
Source and output
These sections show the size, the frame rate and the audio of your file, and what Kitset makes from it: the renditions, the audio and an estimated size. See Video quality.
When you are ready, click Publish.
Public or unlisted
| Public | Unlisted | |
|---|---|---|
| The public home page lists it | Yes | No |
| Search engines can find its page | Yes | No |
| Viewers who sign in see it on the home page | Yes | Yes |
| Anyone with the link can watch it | Yes | Yes |
| Its link | The folder name, for example summer-launch |
The folder name with a random part, for example summer-launch-x7k2m9qa |
The random part means that nobody can guess the link of an unlisted video from its title.
Unlisted is not private. Anyone who has the link can watch the video and download its files, and they can share the link. Kitset has no passwords for videos and no DRM.
The confirm screen starts with the visibility of the last video that this Mac published to the site. To change the visibility later, see Changing a video.
Choose a poster
When the encode is complete, Kitset suggests a poster: a frame from the video. The poster shows on the player page before the video plays, on the home page, and in link previews in apps such as Messages and Slack.
- Click Choose Frame… to choose any other frame of the video.
- Click Use Image… to use an image file.
- Click No Poster to publish with no poster.
Kitset uses the poster that shows after 20 seconds. To stop the countdown, click Wait, or choose any of the buttons. Then click Use This Poster.
You can change the poster at any time after the publish.
While the video publishes
The Upload window shows the stage, the progress and an estimate of the time.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Encoding | Kitset encodes every rendition on your Mac. |
| Packaging | Kitset makes the HLS and DASH playlists. |
| Poster | Kitset prepares the poster. |
| Uploading | Kitset uploads the files to your bucket. |
You can close the Upload window. The publish continues, and the bar at the bottom of the Library shows its progress. Click Show to open the window again.
A video is not playable until its upload is complete. Cancel stops the publish and deletes the files that Kitset already uploaded.
Each site publishes one video at a time. A bulk upload or a Vimeo sync uses the same place, so a single publish waits until a run ends.
Share the link
When the publish is complete, the window shows Published with the link of the page. Click Copy to copy the link, or Open to open the page in your browser.
The Streams section has the addresses of the HLS and DASH playlists, for your own player.
Click Publish Another for the next video.
If a publish fails
The window shows what went wrong.
- Try Again uploads the encoded video again, with the same poster. Kitset does not encode again, and it does not need the source file.
- Start Over goes back to the start screen.
- After a failed upload, the Upload Log shows each request. Click Copy and send the log to support.
See Troubleshooting.