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About embedding background and Chromeless videos

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This feature enables you to hide all player elements (e.g., play/pause, playbar, share) for your embedded videos, offering two primary methods: background videos and Chromeless players. 

In this article

Embedding background videos

To use a video as a background element on your website, add the ?background=1 parameter to the end of your player URL. 

Listed below are the effects of the background=1 parameter:

  • All player toggles and elements (including the play/pause button) will be turned off.
  • The video will automatically loop.
  • The video will be set to autoplay.
  • The video will be muted by default.
  • This parameter will not disable keyboard controls.

Example embed code:

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/76979871?background=1" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>;

Enabling sound for background videos

To play the background video with sound, add the &muted=0 parameter.

Chrome, Safari, and Firefox have autoplay restrictions that will prevent videos from automatically playing with sound unless the video is muted. Muted background videos are exempt from this restriction.  For more information, visit  How to add autoplay and loop parameters to my video’s embed code.

Example embed code:

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/76979871?background=1&muted=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>;

Embedding Chromeless players

If you only want to hide the user interface (UI) without enforcing muting, autoplay, or looping, you can use the chromeless player option.

Listed below are the effects of the controls=0 parameter:

  • The playbar and all other UI controls will be hidden.
  • To control playback (start/stop), you must:

Example embed code:

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/76979871?controls=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>;

Parameter placement for unlisted videos

If you are modifying the embed code for a video with the Unlisted privacy setting, you must be careful with the parameter placement.

  • Unlisted videos have a privacy hash parameter directly after the video ID, similar to ?h=913062c8ff.
  • All additional parameters (like background=1 or controls=0) must be added after this privacy hash.
  • The first additional parameter should be added using an ampersand (&), not a question mark (?).

For example: Original URL (Unlisted): https://player.vimeo.com/video/123456789?h=913062c8ff 

Adding the background parameter: https://player.vimeo.com/video/123456789?h=913062c8ff&background=1

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