Adding a title

Every rentable thing in this section is a title. A title is either a single film (one video, rented as a whole) or a series (episodes in seasons, rented as one). You pick which one you are making at the very start, and that choice sticks once the title has a video, so it is worth a moment's thought.

This page covers the single-film path from the first click to the moment you publish. If you are building a series, start here for the name, poster and trailer, then head to series and episodes for the episode list.

Create the title

1. Go to Films then Titles in your dashboard.
2. Click New title in the top right.
3. You are asked: is this one film, or a series with episodes? Pick A film or A series.
4. Fill in the details below.
5. Click Create film (or Create and add episodes for a series).

Name

The name is what fans see on the catalog card and at the top of the title page. Keep it to the name of the work itself, up to 200 characters.

Description

Tell fans what they are about to rent. A short synopsis, who made it, how long it runs, anything that helps someone decide. Up to 5000 characters.

Poster

The poster is the image on the catalog card, at the top of the title page, and in the link preview when somebody shares it. Upload a PNG, JPG or WebP. Portrait artwork works best, because that is the shape the cards use.

Trailer

The trailer is optional and it is public. Anyone can watch it without renting anything, which is exactly what a trailer is for. Upload an MP4, MOV or WebM file.

The film itself is treated completely differently. It is stored privately, never at an open address, and it only plays for someone holding a live rental.

Uploading the video

A film is created together with its video, so the upload happens on the same form.

1. In The video section, click Choose video.
2. Pick your master file. MP4, MOV and WebM are accepted.
3. A progress bar shows the upload. Keep the tab open until it finishes.
4. Click Create film.

Watching the processing finish

After you create a film you land on its Details tab, where a Video row shows where the processing has got to:

• Queued means it is waiting its turn.
• Encoding means it is being worked on right now.
• Ready means it will play for anyone with a live rental.
• Failed means something went wrong with the file. The reason is shown next to the badge and a Retry button sits beside it.

If a retry fails again, the master is usually the problem. Re-export it as a standard MP4 and create the title again.

Subtitles

Subtitles hang on the player as separate language tracks, so adding one never re-processes your video.

1. On the Details tab (or on an episode row, for a series), click Subtitles.
2. Click Choose subtitle file and pick a .vtt or .srt file. Either is fine, and an .srt is converted for you.
3. Enter the Language as a short tag: en for English, de for German, pt-BR for Brazilian Portuguese. There is a list to pick from, and you can type your own.
4. Optionally give it a Menu name, which is what appears in the player's subtitle menu. Leave it blank and the language tag is used instead.
5. Turn on Turn this on by default if this should be the track the player picks when a viewer has expressed no preference. Only one track can hold that at a time.
6. Click Add track.

The languages a title carries are shown as small tags right next to the Subtitles button, so you can scan a whole season and see which one still needs a German track.

Changing and removing tracks

• Make default moves the automatic selection to that track.
• Retire takes a track out of the menu straight away, including for anyone watching right now. It is kept rather than deleted, so you can put it back with Show retired tracks then Restore.
• You can only carry one live track per language. If you want to replace a translation, retire the old one first.

The address

Every title gets an Address, which is the part of the link after your site's domain. It is filled in from the name when you create the title, and you can change it on the Details tab.

Renaming a title never moves its address on its own. Changing the address does move the page, and any link you have already shared for the old one stops working, so only change it before you start promoting.

Publishing

A title starts as a Draft. Fans cannot see it or rent it until you publish.

Before the Publish button works, a title needs:

• At least one rental window, which is a price and a length of time together. See rental pricing and windows.
• At least one video that is processed and released. For a film that is your master finishing. For a series it is at least one episode that is ready and past its release date.

If anything is missing, a Before this can be published box lists exactly what, so you never have to guess why the button is refusing you.

Once you click Publish, the title appears in your catalog and fans can rent it.

Unpublish and archive

Two ways to take a title off sale, and they are not the same:

• Unpublish puts the title back to Draft. It comes off sale and you can keep working on it.
• Archive stops new rentals immediately and files the title away. Use Restore to bring it back as a draft.

Finding a title again

The Titles list shows everything you have made, newest first. You can:

• Search by name.
• Filter by All types, Films or Series.
• Filter by All states, Draft, Published or Archived.
• Click Clear to drop every filter at once.

Each row shows the poster, the name, whether it is a film or a series, its state, how many episodes it has, and how many rentals it has taken. If any video failed to process, the row says so in red so you can spot it without opening the title.

Where to go next