First make sure the feature is enabled where your portfolio is displayed:
WPZOOM → Theme Options → Homepage → Portfolio Page → Background Video — for the portfolio page templates.
Using the Portfolio widget in Elementor? The widget has its own Background Video setting — including an option to play all videos automatically, not just on hover.
Then add the clip per portfolio post: edit the post and open the Video Background on Hover tab in the Video Settings metabox:
There are two ways to add the clip:
Option A: a self-hosted MP4 clip
Select MP4 as the video source.
Click Upload Video to pick a clip from the Media Library, or paste a direct URL into the MP4 Video URL field.
Update the post.
We recommend a small, low-quality file (2–5 MB) with H.264 encoding, at 720p (1280×720px) or smaller — the clip loads on gallery pages, so keep it light. Since Reel 3.1.5 you don’t even need an external tool: the built-in trimmer can cut the clip for you (see Option B, which also accepts direct .mp4 links), or use Ezgif or similar to cut and resize manually.
Option B: trim a clip from a URL
Don’t have a separate clip? Let Reel make one for you:
Select MP4 / YouTube / Vimeo — Trim Video from URL as the video source.
Paste a YouTube, Vimeo, or direct .mp4 link.
Pick the start time and duration, preview the clip, and click Insert Video — WPZOOM’s trimming service processes it, saves an optimized MP4, and attaches it to the post.
A few limits of the trimming service:
It requires an active theme license.
The source video must be public and reasonably short (up to ~30 minutes; the trimmed clip itself should be just a few seconds).
Vimeo sources must have Download enabled — otherwise the service can’t access the file (how to enable downloads).
Tips & requirements
Hover previews always play muted — browsers require it for autoplaying video.
The hover clip is separate from the post’s main video: a short teaser on hover, the full video in the Video Lightbox or on the single post.
