Time Stamp

Time Stamp is a feature that allows a user to start viewing a video from a specific time offset. This is a very useful feature for sharing a video like a newscast where the user may want people to view a certain segment of the program without having to watch everything that precedes it.

Overview

You can implement time stamp with both the Standard (iframe) and Advanced (in-page) player implementations. For the Standard implementation you use a t query parameter:

<iframe src="https://players.brightcove.net/1507807800001/
    SJgrJZnuAz_default/index.html?videoId=5637008067001&t=70s"
  allowfullscreen
  webkitallowfullscreen
  mozallowfullscreen></iframe>

For the Advanced implementation use the attribute data-start-time:

<video-js data-video-id="5637008067001"
  data-account="1507807800001"
  data-player="SJgrJZnuAz"
  data-embed="default"
  data-application-id
  class="video-js"
  controls
  data-start-time="70"></video-js>
<script src="https://players.brightcove.net/1507807800001/SJgrJZnuAz_default/index.min.js"></script>

Time formats

Two possible time formats can be used for specifying the start time:

  • Simple time in seconds: This is what used in the examples above, showing start the video 70 seconds in (translated into 1:10 in the video). You cannot use min:seconds format.
  • The hms format: Here the time can be indicated in hours/minutes/seconds. For instance, to start the video 1 hour, 1 minute and 1 second in use the 1h1m1s syntax.

Social media use

Unfortunately, most social services do not allow deep linking as shown above. Instead, the services substitute a native player which does not support deep linking. As of July 2014 only one major social network, Twitter, supports direct inclusion of the Brightcove player in the social feed using an iframe, making deep linking possible.

For details about deep linking with Twitter, see the Social Media Plugin document.

Known issues

  • The data-start-time attribute and t query parameter only work for players v6.19.0+.
  • Currently, the t parameter is not supported if the version is 7.6 or lower but higher than 6.19.0.