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Reel – Video Background Support in Slideshow

This article refers to Reel

Reel theme allows you to display videos in background in each slide from the Slideshow.

Until recently, most mobile devices didn’t support video autoplay, in order to prevent users from unsolicited data consumption.

However, starting with Reel 2.0 (February, 2019), self-hosted (MP4) and Vimeo videos are now supported by the most mobile devices. Unfortunately, YouTube videos cannot be played automatically in background on mobile devices

Upgrade to Vimeo PRO Today!

Even though Inspiro supports self-hosted videos, it’s much better to host them on a dedicated video platform like Vimeo. With Vimeo PRO, your videos will load faster and you will not have to deal with issues like server bandwidth or slow-loading videos.

Upgrade to Vimeo PRO →

Don’t want the background video to play on mobile devices?

You can disable it in Customizer > Homepage Slider:

When you create a Slideshow post, find the Video Background tab in Video Settings section:

There you can insert a video which will play in the background for the current slide in the slideshow.

The Featured Image of that Slideshow post will act as a fallback during page load and on devices that don’t support video autoplay (mobile devices).

Video Background Support on Mobile Devices

Currently, only self-hosted and Vimeo videos can be played automatically in background on mobile devices. YouTube player has some limitations and doesn’t provide such a possibility.

Requirements for Video File to play on Mobile Devices (self-hosted):

  1. Video format must be MP4 with the h.264 encoding. You can resize/convert it using Handbrake.
  2. Video must be Muted
  3. We also recommended to keep your video file size small (5-20MB) to load fast enough on 3G/4G connections


Video Not Playing on Mobile?
If your phone is in Low Power Mode (iOS), then your mobile browser won’t play the video automatically in order to save battery.


Read Also:
Tips for Optimizing Self-Hosted Video Backgrounds

Video background not playing on mobile? Upload a GIF as Featured Image!
You can easily convert your video file using an online converter in a GIF file and set it as Featured Image, and it will play fine on mobile devices.

The theme includes also a feature called Video Lightbox which is fully supported by tablets & mobile devices.

Using Video Lightbox you can display YouTube or Vimeo videos in the slideshow on both desktop and mobile devices:

Screen Shot 2016-08-28 at 10.00.10

You can read more about Video Lightbox feature here.

Last updated on April 10, 2021