Playlist Walkthrough

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What are Playlists?

Playlists are a series of videos that will play in a designated sequence. Unlike videos on demand, playlist content can’t be skipped or rewound. It functions like a traditional TV channel where video plays from beginning to end. Content is always playing, set to loop, and starts at a designated start time. So if its 6 hours of content, it will loop four times a day. As an added benefit, someone who starts to watch at, for example, midnight will see the same content as someone else who is already watching at the same time.

Creating a Playlist Channel

Playlists are a component of Live Channels as they can be used to mimic a live stream. To create a playlist, click



Now enter a name for the channel. Under type, select either “Video Playlist” or “Audio Playlist” from the drop down menu. Now choose a category and select

Configuring your Playlist

Following this is a three step process to get your Playlist setup.



Description

Under this tab, you can change the name and other fields entered in the first screen. You also have control of the ONLINE status, which can be toggled on or off to quickly disable the channel if needed. An optional description can be added that will appear under channel information in the player and on the DaCast Video Portal. The ability to attach a logo (which appears for all platform messages and watermarks), Thumbnail (used for the DaCast Video Portal) and Splash Screen (quickly flashes on the screen before the video begins) are also found here, and JPEGs, GIFs or PNGs images can be uploaded.

Publish Settings

A variety of options are found here. Allowed Country List lets you dictate which countries are allowed to view your content, while unsupported countries will be blocked from viewing. Referrer lets you select what websites can use your embedded video; unsupported websites will be blocked from sharing your content. To edit or manage either list later, go to PREFERENCES and then VIDEO SECURITY.

A Player Theme can also be selected, which is where watermark and the look of the player are managed.

Chat and Autoplay can also be disabled or enabled under PUBLISH SETTINGS.

Several embed codes are provided in order to share your content on your website. Please use the traditional embed for most usage. If you are using a service like Wordpress, the CMS code is best. Swfobject is best for forums. Don’t use the Iframe embed if you plan to have a Referrer on your content.



The DaCast Portal is an optional service that will publish the Playlist to DaCast’s Video Portal site. If you want the content to only appear on your own web service, please disable this feature. If using the Facebook share code, please make sure the content is enabled for the DaCast Video Portal.

Playlist Setup

The third step, PLAYLIST SETUP, allows you to manage what content will appear. To begin adding videos, simply drag them from the AVAILABLE FILES on the left to the SCHEDULER on the right. Use the arrows to control when content might appear. Click the red to remove content from the scheduler, although this will not delete the content from your account but only remove it from the playlist.



Playlist start time, which is in UTC by default although you can change the time zone (go to MY ACCOUNT and PERSONAL PROFILE to associate a time zone with your account), designates when the program starts. For example, if you select 2:00 for a four hour program then the start time will be 2:00 and it will begin its first repeat at 6:00. Furthermore, if a viewer starts to watch at 3:00 they will be an hour into the program.

When finished, click

Your Playlist channel is now finished. You can PREVIEW the content or go to MONETIZATION to apply pay-per-views, subscriptions or other services to your streams.