VOD supports multiple methods to play back uploaded and transcoded videos, and video playback mainly involves the following three scenarios:

This document describes the three scenarios' characteristics and recommended playback methods.

Short Video Playback

Short videos generally refer to videos of less than 5 minutes in length, mainly including:

• Videos shared on UGSV social medias (such as WeSee, Kuaishou, and TikTok).
• Product promotion videos shared on ecommerce platforms (such as JD.com and Pinduoduo).
• Videos shared on WeChat Official Account and we media.

Playback architecture

For short video playback scenarios, VOD provides the basic player SDK, which uses the URL as a parameter to play back the selected video on demand.

The overall architecture of playback with the basic player SDK is as follows:

1. Upload from server: the business backend uploads a video to VOD through the console, server API, or other means.
2. Trigger video processing: when the video is uploaded, transcoding can be specified. After the video is uploaded, the transcoding process begins.
3. Transcode and write to storage: after the video is transcoded, the output video content is written to the VOD storage.
4. Download the content: the basic player downloads the content from VOD CDN at the download address.
5. Play back the video: the basic player plays back the video.

Integration with basic player

For the features supported by the basic player SDK, please see Feature list. For the integration method, please see Download and use.

Long Video Playback

Long videos generally refer to videos produced by professional organizations and published on video websites, mainly including:

• Exclusive TV series and variety shows published on video social media (such as Tencent Video, Youku, and iQIYI).
• Course videos published on online education websites (such as Tencent Class and Penguin Tutoring).
• TV programs replayed on online TV platforms (such as CNTV and Mongo TV).

Playback architecture

For long video playback scenarios, VOD provides the superplayer SDK, which uses the FileId as a parameter to play back the selected video on demand.

The overall architecture of playback with the superplayer SDK is as follows:

1. Upload from server: the business backend uploads a video to VOD through the console, server API, or other means.
2. Trigger video processing: when the video is uploaded, adaptive bitrate streaming is specified. After the video is uploaded, video processing begins.
3. Transcode to adaptive bitstream and write to storage: after the video is transcoded to adaptive bitstream, the output video content is written to the VOD storage.
4. Update the media asset: the output video information is written into the media asset management module.
5. Request the download address: the superplayer gets the download address of the video from VOD's playback service after the video's FileId is specified.
6. Download the content: the superplayer downloads the content from VOD CDN at the download address.
7. Play back the video: the superplayer plays back the output adaptive bitstream.

If key hotlink protection is enabled for the video to be played back, the superplayer signature needs to be specified during the playback. In this case, the architecture is as follows:

1. The "signature distribution" service needs to be built on the business backend, and a signature is generated according to the player signature calculation rule.
2. The superplayer gets the player signature before playing back the video (as shown in step 5 below).
3. When the superplayer requests the download address (as shown in step 6 below), the playback service will return the download address only after verifying that the signature is valid.

Integration with superplayer

For the features supported by the superplayer SDK, please see Feature list. For the integration method, please see Download and use.
To help you quickly integrate the superplayer of VOD, we provide a superplayer integration guide to describe the integration steps by way of demos.

Encrypted Video Playback

Video encryption is a specific scenario of long video playback scenarios, where copyrighted videos such as exclusive TV series and online courses are encrypted to avoid unauthorized download and distribution.
For more information on how video encryption works and the integration methods, please see Video Encryption Overview and Video Encryption Integration Guide.

Player SDK

Download and use

Feature list

Basic player

Superplayer