Here’s how to store your videos on Dropbox and deliver them via SmartVideo.
Copy a Dropbox share link for your video. On dropbox.com, hover over the video file, click Share, then click Copy link.
If you are using our WordPress plugin:
- Upload your video to Dropbox.
- On dropbox.com, hover over the video file, click Share, then click Copy link.
- Paste the copied URL into the Video URL field of the SmartVideo widget:
And that’s it!
If you are not using our WordPress plugin
- Copy the SmartVideo tag below and paste it where you wish to embed the video.
<smartvideo src="https://your-video.example.com/file.mp4" width="1280" height="720" class="swarm-fluid" controls> </smartvideo>
- Back on dropbox.com, hover over the video file, click Share, then click Copy link.
- Then, paste the Dropbox link into the SmartVideo HTML tag, replacing the https://your-video.example.com/file.mp4 placeholder.
Your video is now ready to be embedded on your site and delivered by SmartVideo!
Do I need to keep the file in Dropbox?
Once processing finishes, your visitors stream the video from SmartVideo’s CDN, not from Dropbox. SmartVideo downloads the file from your Dropbox link, encodes it into optimized renditions, and serves those copies itself.
Keep the file in Dropbox and its share link active for as long as the video is embedded. SmartVideo downloads the original from that link again whenever it has to rebuild the optimized copy, so keeping it reachable is required, not just a backup precaution. SmartVideo stores the encoded, delivery-ready renditions, not a byte-for-byte copy of your master file; see Video backup best practices for keeping your originals safe.
Encoding usually takes about as long as the video runs, so a 10-minute video takes about 10 minutes. If the video still isn’t showing, give it time to process and check Video not playing? Troubleshooting guide — common causes are still-processing, a CDN-key mismatch, or a Content-Security-Policy that needs *.swarmcdn.com *.swarmify.com blob: added.
Item of note: Unfortunately, Dropbox doesn’t support using images hosted on Dropbox for manually setting a Thumbnail/Poster image.
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