About this plugin
VidCellar Lite is a standalone GPLv2-or-later WordPress plugin for managing and playing videos on your own WordPress site. It does not require an external account or a license key. It is suitable for hosting online streaming libraries, film and music festival videos, webinars, training, and enterprise videos.
Start with VidCellar Lite, a free core video platform for managing and streaming videos from your WordPress website. An optional Pro add-on is available separately for advanced monetization, cloud storage, paid-content access, analytics, advertisement insertion, and other premium features.
Unlock full potential of video streaming with VidCellar Pro, with paid contents with pay-per-view, or membership, advanced analytics, E-mail marketing, and advertisement revenue, emoji and much more..
Features include:
- White-label HTML5 player (no third-party branding): custom colours, your own logo/watermark, and a choice of which controls appear.
- Chapters with timeline markers and hover titles (WebVTT file, timestamp list, or timestamps in the description).
- Multi-language WebVTT subtitles and alternate audio languages.
- Searchable, synchronised transcript (below or beside the video).
- Playback speeds 0.25× to 2×, HLS quality selector (Auto/1080p/720p/…), Picture-in-Picture, theater mode and fullscreen.
- Sticky mini-player that docks to a screen corner on scroll, with mobile options.
- Video library and Watch pages.
- Administrator-managed video categories.
- Secure local video storage and playback.
- Resumable/chunked uploads for large video files, subject to server resources and hosting limits.
- Video file type and MIME validation.
- Video thumbnails and optional trailers.
- Ratings and view counts.
- Background video optimization when FFmpeg is available on the server.
- Adaptive bitrate streaming (HLS): each upload is encoded into 1080p/720p/480p/360p renditions in the background, and the player switches quality automatically to match the viewer’s connection. Native HLS on Safari/iOS, bundled hls.js elsewhere, MP4 fallback everywhere.
- Fast, lightweight player: a poster-and-play-button “facade” loads no video element or media until the visitor is near it; on browsers that need it, the small HLS engine warms in the background so Play can start promptly.
- “VidCellar Video” block and [vidcellar_player id="…"] shortcode to embed a single video anywhere.
- Content protection (VidCellar → Content Protection):
- AES-128 encrypted HLS: every segment is encrypted on disk and in transit; each rendition has its own key, issued only against a valid signed link.
- Signed, short-lived links (HMAC-SHA256) for playlists, keys, segments and MP4, refreshed in the background while a viewer watches. Optional binding to the viewer’s network.
- Anti-hotlinking: Origin/Referer allow-list, CORS and Cross-Origin-Resource-Policy, plus generated nginx and Apache rules (X-Accel-Redirect / X-Sendfile and nginx auth_request supported).
- Dynamic watermark drawn over the video with the viewer’s email, username, IP address, a live timestamp and a traceable session ID; it moves and changes opacity every few seconds and resists removal with developer tools.
- Viewer-session log to trace a leaked recording from the session ID in its watermark.
- Categories can be renamed or deleted (videos are moved, never deleted).
- Trailers open in a pop-up player.
- Responsive HTML5 video playback.
- WordPress-native administration, permissions, nonces, and REST APIs.
- Optional deletion of plugin data during uninstall; data is retained by default.
VidCellar Lite is fully usable on its own. Paid monetization, payment gateways, coupons, advertising controls, commercial storage integrations, and advanced revenue features are provided separately by an optional Pro add-on.
Privacy
VidCellar Lite does not require registration with an external video service and does not send video files to a remote video server. The plugin stores its video metadata and locally uploaded video files on the WordPress site. Site administrators are responsible for configuring their site’s privacy policy and for describing any other services, analytics, storage providers, or media services they independently configure.
Upgrade to Pro
org plugin. The Lite plugin remains fully usable without Pro. Optional Pro information and purchase links are shown only inside the WordPress administration area.
Third-party libraries
txt ). 3. On browsers without native HLS support it warms in the background once a player is near view, but media playlists and segments are only requested after the visitor presses Play.
License
VidCellar Lite is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later.
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