You can choose to segment your video into parts that display a scrubber progress bar in the player relative to the duration of each part. For instance, if a playback segment contains the first 30 seconds of a video, your viewers will only see those 30 seconds reflected in the playbar while they are in that segment.
In this article:
- What are the benefits of using playback segments?
- Getting started with playback segments
- Tips and tricks for playback segments
What are the benefits of using playback segments?
- Break your branching video down into segments for easier navigation of the playbar
- Use alongside branching features (time triggers and hotspot actions) to create Playback Segments that can be navigated without allowing the viewer to see segments they shouldn’t
- Use alongside chapters to create chapter segments for navigation of the timeline within each chapter
Getting started with playback segments
What will you need?
- An interactive video
- A list of the timestamps for all of the segments you want to create (you can compile this within the studio)
Use the segment editor
- In the interactive editor, you can find the Playback segment button alongside the player controls.
- Clicking this button will reveal the playback segmentation editor panel to the left, the segment timeline, and a dummy play bar that will show you how each segment will appear to viewers
- In segmentation mode, you will see the video represented as one long segment, with the playbar representing the entire length of the video.
Create a second segment
- Move the timeline needle (or manually enter the timecode) to where you wish the second segment to begin.
- As you drag the needle, you’ll see the dummy playbar represent what the viewer would see with the current segmentation settings.
- At the desired point in the video hit the ‘Add segment break at xx’ button to split the segment in two.
- Notice the dummy playbar has now returned to the start. This is because you are now at the start of segment 2.
- Continue to find the segment start points in your video, adding a segment break at each of these points until you have added all of the player segments required for your video
Delete a segment
- You can delete any of your segments by hitting the trash icon alongside the segment time stamps.
⚠️Note: Any segments you delete will have an impact on the previous segment length.
Change a segment
- You can change the start time of any segment by manually altering the time code in the segment start time input box.
Finish the segmentation
- When you are finished creating your playback segments, hit the tick at the top of the playback segment panel.
Tips and tricks for playback segments
- Segments must be more than 1 second in length.
- At the end of each segment, the video will by default begin to play the next segment. If you want to keep your viewer inside a segment use time triggers with a pause or jump to actions at the end of each segment.
- Chapters, time parameters, hotspots, and time triggers can move the viewer through segments.