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This feature allows you to hide all elements in the player (e.g., play/pause, playbar, share, etc.) for your embedded videos, offering two main methods: Background Videos and Chromeless Players.
In this article
- How to embed background videos
- Enabling sound for background videos
- How to embed Chromeless players
- Parameter placement for unlisted videos
How to embed 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
If you want the background video to play 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 not affected by this restriction.
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>
How to embed Chromeless players
If your goal is only 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:
- Enable autoplay (e.g., ?autoplay=1).
- Use keyboard shortcuts.
- Implement a custom solution using the player SDK.
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 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