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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is there a bandwidth limit?

Packages include a stated amount of delivery a month (2, 3 or 5 TB depending on the package). At 80% of it we email you once per billing cycle. At 100% playback keeps working: with overage off, the top quality reduces to 720p for the rest of the month; you can also turn on overage, billed at $10 per TB, or move to a bigger package. Pay-as-you-go has no included amount and no cap: delivery bills at $10 per TB. The details, including the safety caps, are in billing and metering.

Is there a free trial?

Packages (Start, Pro, Advanced) come with a 14-day free trial; a card is required to start it, and nothing is charged until the trial ends. Pay-as-you-go has no trial and no minimum: you pay for what you store and deliver from the first byte.

What type of content is allowed?

All legal content is allowed, as long as it doesn't include threats aimed at any person or group. Content that may offend can be marked as such, and viewers must agree before watching.

What formats and resolutions are delivered through HeapStream?

HeapStream picks each video's bitrate ladder automatically. All videos are delivered with the H.264 codec, in adaptive streaming quality levels from 240p to 2160p (depending on the source resolution and the chosen encoding tier), so playback adapts to each viewer's device and bandwidth.

Is it possible to have videos autoplay with sound enabled?

No; browsers block autoplay with sound (see MDN's Autoplay Guide ⧉).

Muted autoplay works. If you're using our player, add the autoplay URL parameter to the embed URL.

We recommend:

  • MP4 container, AAC audio codec, H.264 video codec, frame rate of 30 fps or below
  • moov atom at the front of the file, for fast start
  • Progressive scan (no interlacing)
  • H.264 high profile
  • Closed GOP
  • Encode and upload at the frame rate the content was recorded in
  • Mono or stereo audio (tracks with more than two channels are mixed down to stereo)

Which file formats for input are accepted?

MP4, MXF, FLV, AVI, GXF, 3GP, MKV, MPG, MPEG-2 PS, LXF, QuickTime, MPEG-2 TS, WebM, MOV

Is High Dynamic Range (HDR) video content supported?

HDR videos are re-encoded and delivered in SDR so they play on the widest range of devices.

Do my source file's tags reach viewers?

No. Editing suites and cameras write tags into the file they export: a project title, an artist or author name, a comment, sometimes the full path the project was saved under on the machine that made it. Chapter markers travel the same way.

HeapStream drops all of it. Every quality level we encode and every audio track we publish is written with no metadata carried over from your upload, so nothing a viewer downloads or inspects reveals anything about how the file was produced. That covers the HLS renditions and the progressive MP4 download of a rendition alike. Your uploaded file itself is never rewritten, so the original download still hands back the exact file you sent, tags and all.

The information you do want shown is the information you set in HeapStream: the video title and description, tags, and any chapters you generate or upload, which are served as a separate track rather than buried in the media file.

Public versus Private videos

A video is either public or private, and you control the setting per video.

Videos default to private. Set the public attribute to true to let anyone with the video URL watch it.

How to structure videos in folders

Use folders: a video lives in at most one folder, folders nest up to 5 levels deep, and the dashboard's Videos page doubles as the folder browser (with drag-and-drop moving, bulk move, and upload-into-folder).

For cross-cutting labels that one video can carry several of, use tags

as well; the dashboard can search by tag to quickly locate videos.

Which frame rates (FPS) are supported?

HeapStream accepts videos at any frame rate. Output is capped at 60 fps: videos above 60 fps are re-encoded at 60 fps, and videos at or below 60 fps keep their original frame rate.

For videos with a variable frame rate, excess frames are dropped so that at most one frame is kept per 1/30 of a second.

The 240p, 360p, and 480p renditions are always capped at 30 fps for wider device compatibility.

Is there a maximum upload size?

A video upload can be at most 20 GB; see Limits.

If I cancel the service, are the videos deleted?

Videos are deleted within 30 days after canceling the service.

Is there a limit on the number of uploads?

No. Note that unfinished uploads count toward your total storage.

Can I download the original video files?

Yes, you can.