Upload and index media

Warning

Over the past year, Azure AI Video Indexer (VI) announced the removal of its dependency on Azure Media Services (AMS) due to its retirement. Features adjustments and changes were announced and a migration guide was provided.

The deadline to complete migration was June 30, 2024. VI has extended the update/migrate deadline so you can update your VI account and opt in to the AMS VI asset migration through August 31, 2024.

However, after June 30, if you have not updated your VI account, you won't be able to index new videos nor will you be able to play any videos that have not been migrated. If you update your account after June 30, you can resume indexing immediately but you won't be able to play videos indexed before the account update until they are migrated through the AMS VI migration.

This article shows you how to upload and index media files (audio or video) with the Azure AI Video Indexer website using advanced settings. If you would like to try a basic upload, see the quickstart.

Prerequisites

• An Azure AI Video Indexer account. You can sign up for a free trial account, or create a paid account.
• A media file. See supported file formats.
• A publicly accessible URL, either:
  • A URL that you can use to view or listen to the file by pasting the URL in the browser location field.
  • A SAS URL. If the file is hosted in an Azure storage account, generate a SAS token URL and paste it in the input box.

Note

You can't use URLs from streaming services such as YouTube.

Upload the file

Use these steps to upload and index a video file.

1. Sign in to the Video Indexer website.
2. Select Upload.
3. Select the file source. You can upload up to 10 files at a time.
   • To upload from your file system, select Browse files and choose the files you want to upload.
   • To add more files, select Add file.
   • To remove a file, select Remove on the file name.
   • To upload from a URL, select Enter URL, paste the source file URL, and select Add.
4. Configure the basic settings for indexing or use the default configuration. Specify the following settings for each file:
   • Privacy: Choose whether the video URL will be publicly available or private after indexing.
   • Streaming quality: Choose the streaming quality for the video. You can select Single bitrate or No streaming For more information, see the streaming options.
   • Video source language: Choose the spoken language of the video to ensure high quality transcript and insights extraction. If you don't know the language or there's more than one spoken language, select Auto-detect single language or Auto-detect multi-language. For more information, see Language detection.
5. If it's the first time you're uploading a media file, check the consent checkbox to agree to the terms and conditions.
6. Configure the general settings for indexing. You can rename the files.
7. Configure the advanced settings for indexing. These settings are for all files in the batch:
   • Indexing preset: Choose the preset that fits your needs. You can also exclude sensitive AI by selecting the checkbox.
   • People model: If you're using a customized people model, choose it from the dropdown list.
   • Brand categories: If you're using a customized brand model, choose it from the dropdown list.
   • File information: If you want to add metadata, enter the text in the input box. Metadata is shared between all files in the same upload batch. When uploading a single file, you can add a description.
8. Select Review + upload.
9. Review the summary page that shows the indexing settings and the upload progress.
10. Select Upload + index.
11. When the file indexing is complete, select the Library tab, then select the media file to view insights.

Troubleshoot uploading issues

If you encounter any issues while uploading media files, try the following solutions:

• If the Upload button is disabled, hover over the button and check for the indication of the problem.
• Try to refresh the page.
• If you're using a trial account, check the account quota for daily count, daily duration, or total duration. To view your quota and usage, select Account settings.
• If the upload from URL failed, check that:
  • the URL is valid and public. You should be able to view or hear the file from placing the URL in the browser location field.
  • the media file isn't encrypted, protected by digital rights management (DRM), corrupted, or damaged.
  • it's a supported media file.
  • the file size isn't larger than 2 GB.
  • you have a stable internet connection.