Video API
The Imgix Video API allows you to optimize and serve video to your users. Using our URL-based API, you can generate thumbnails, and apply various transformations to your video content. The Video API is ideal for quick playback on your website or app. It is best suited for videos that are shorter than 5 minutes, such as video clips, GIFs, or background videos. Imgix Video is served through the .net subdomain, supports custom domains and is available instantly without transcoding.
Video Features
- Thumbnail generation
- Instant availability
- Bitrate selection
- Codec selection
- Signing
- Video Resizing
- Clipping
- Serve through
.net - Supports custom domains
Automatic Bitrate Selection
By default, when fm=mp4 is used without the video-bitrate and video-codec parameters, Imgix Video encodes using the widely-supported H.264 codec and automatically selects an appropriate bitrate. The encoder uses a variable bitrate, analyzing video content to balance quality and file size rather than targeting a fixed output.
We recommend using unencoded video with Imgix Video through fm=mp4. Pre-encoding your video before delivery may occasionally result in an output file size that is larger than the source due to Imgix Video’s automatic bitrate selection behavior. For predictable, controlled output, use the video-bitrate and video-codec parameters.
Optimizing Imgix Video
Compared to images, where resizing is the most common optimization operation, video optimization is more complex. The most impactful optimization operations are:
video-bitrate: This parameter allows you to specify the video’s bitrate, which can significantly affect the quality and size of the video. A higher bitrate generally results in better quality but larger file size. The recommended range is between1Mand5M.video-codec: This parameter allows you to specify the codec of the video. Some codecs are more efficient than others, though all browsers may not support them.