Pics.io takes a pride in supporting a wide variety of file formats including a whole range of video file formats. Pics.io has a powerful multiformat video player that allows you to play your video files and perform basic manipulations with them without leaving the app.
All video assets have a Playback icon on their thumbnails, making it easy to differentiate video files from images and other types of files.
Once you open your video file in Pics.io, you can see the timeline. The loading progress bar shows how far your video is through the loading process. If you place your mouse cursor on any place on the video timeline, you will see its timing, and that allows you easily find a place you need.
To pause and resume the playback process, you can click the “play” button in the left corner below. Or you can merely click one time on the screen.
In the right corner below the timeline, you can see the following:
the "quality" scale - the highest quality is displayed by default, but it can be changed;
“screenshot download” button - it automatically downloads a JPG screenshot to your device;
the "create custom thumbnail" button allows you to make a screenshot of the definite moment of the video and use it as a thumbnail and preview for your video file;
“scissors” button - it allows you to cut your video files in Pics.io. To make this process easier, you can see the screenshots and the timing of the video piece you’re going to cut.
full-screen button - alternatively, you can do the same with a double click on the screen.
the video speed button allows you to control the playback speed by selecting values from 0.25 to 2. Select normal if you would like to play a video with original speed.
It should be noted that standard video file processing takes place for assets that are up to 5 GB in size. Any above 5 GB is considered large and, therefore, may not be handled by the system as expected e.g. they can be played only at lower resolution. You will see the corresponding message in the Info panel.
Asset is too large for standard processing. Please shoot an email to support@pics.io if you want to have this issue solved.
The support team may try to force the processing, but it won't be beneficial if a file is too large.
Being a web app, Pics.io supports those video file formats and codecs that are supported by a web browser. But apart from that, to extend the list of file formats that can be played by the Pics.io video player and to allow users to choose from different video qualities, Pics.io generates proxy files.
For Google Drive storage quality scale is available for all the supported formats.
For Solo users with the Google Drive storage option .MXF and QuickTime (.MOV) files will be displayed in the original quality only.
NB! As mentioned, Pics.io video player will display different video qualities for supported .MP4 format files, but video files themselves can be downloaded only in original resolution.
application/mxf
video/quicktime (mov)
video/mp4
video/x-matroska (mkv)
video/x-msvideo (avi)
video/x-ms-wmv
video/x-flv
video/x-m4v
video/3gpp
video/webm
video/ogg
video/mpeg
video/avi
model/vnd.mts
video/x-ms-asf (asf)
video/mp2t (ts)
Pics.io storage gives you an opportunity to select different quality for the media formats, as proxy files of video files will be generated in all possible resolutions (360p, 720p, 1080p) depending on the resolution of the source video.
Can I see previews of videos on thumbnails?
Yes, you can see the previews of newly uploaded videos on thumbnails. Here are the supported formats for video preview on thumbnails:
Google Drive storage: MP4, MOV, AVI, FLV, MKV, MXF;
Amazon S3 storage: MP4, MOV, MXF.
Moreover, you may upload your custom .jpg format only thumbnail if needed on the left-side panel menu.
What else can I do with video files?
If you work with video assets, you may also be interested to learn more about the following features:
how also compare two different revisions of the same video asset with the help of Visual Diff Tool for video;
how to discuss your video files with your teammates with the help of Timestamp markers and Areas of Interest.
Also, when you upload MP4 and QuickTime files to Pics.io, the system is parsing all the available metadata inside and it's shown in the Infopanel.
NB Currently Pics.io video player can play the following video file formats: mp4, m4v, webm, quicktime (mov). As for other video files, you can upload and manage them in Pics.io, i.e. structure them in catalogs, attach keywords, leave comments, and edit metadata.
While playing video files, we rely on the HTML5 video standard used by most browsers. It ensures high-quality playback is used to show video directly from a website without embedding any plugins (like Adobe Flash Player, etc.). Still, it has the limitation of supporting different video formats for different web browsers and operating systems.
Watching some 2K/4K videos with exceeded encoding settings may cause unexpected web video player behavior if you do not meet browser limits. In this case, you may face an “ERROR! Your browser cannot play this video. For more details, read our article on videos in Pics.io” message or a video file takes a long time to be loaded and previewed.
First of all, Pics.io tries to pull the original quality from your storage where the video is originally stored and display it in the Pics.io interface. When Pics.io detects that it is a high-quality video file, we automatically set a lower quality for it to be playable within a browser Pics.io platform is opened in. However, you still can find the original quality in the settings list and switch it if necessary (currently applicable for Google Drive only).
NB! Please mind that different browsers have different capabilities so we recommend checking the issue in different browsers to see which browser works best with such files.
That’s why we recommend checking video bitrates, frame rates before sharing your video assets to non-Pics.io users according to the instructions below to ensure that an end user's browser supports the encoding settings of your file.
To find this information on a Mac, perform the following steps:
find the video you want to examine and open it in QuickTime;
once the video is open, press Command+I to open the Information window;
here, you’ll see an item labeled Data Rate. This will tell you the overall bitrate for your video.
In Windows, the following actions should be taken:
right-click the file you want to examine and choose Properties;
on the window that appears, click the Details tab;
under the Video section, the piece of information you’ll care about is “Total bitrate.”
Recommended video bitrates for SDR uploads
To view new 4K uploads in 4K, use a browser or device that supports VP9.
Type | Video Bitrate, Standard Frame Rate (24, 25, 30) | Video Bitrate, High Frame Rate (48, 50, 60) |
2160p (4k) | 35-45 Mbps | 53-68 Mbps |
1440p (2k) | 16 Mbps | 24 Mbps |
1080p | 8 Mbps | 12 Mbps |
720p | 5 Mbps | 7.5 Mbps |
480p | 2.5 Mbps | 4 Mbps |
360p | 1 Mbps | 1.5 Mbps |
Recommended video bitrates for HDR uploads
Type | Video Bitrate, Standard Frame Rate (24, 25, 30) | Video Bitrate, High Frame Rate (48, 50, 60) |
2160p (4k) | 44-56 Mbps | 66-85 Mbps |
1440p (2k) | 20 Mbps | 30 Mbps |
1080p | 10 Mbps | 15 Mbps |
720p | 6.5 Mbps | 9.5 Mbps |
480p | Not supported | Not supported |
360p | Not supported | Not supported |
In case you need to share your video files outside Pics.io, you may use a Lumière template to create a website.