Clips — from the archive, from the Library or recorded now
Updated 12 Oct 2026A clip is a piece of a channel or of a film, saved as an MP4 file. Castreon makes the clip without re-encoding: picture and sound stay exactly as in the source, and the clip is ready in a few seconds, not minutes. The clip starts at the frame you chose, not at the nearest keyframe.
A clip can be made from three sources:
- a channel's archive — any interval of what was broadcast (catch-up);
- a file from the Library — a piece of a film or episode of the 24/7 channels;
- “Record now” — you start a recording on a channel, even on one without an archive, and stop it whenever you like.
Clips are downloaded from the panel, go (on demand or automatically) to S3 or S3-compatible storage, and can be shown to viewers with the viewing link, in the web player.
Available from Castreon 1.5.0, in the Pro and Enterprise plans (the same licence feature as the archive) and in the free trial.
Clip from a channel's archive
- Go to Clips and click New clip — or, on the channel page, in the Schedule tab, click Clip on a past programme (the start and end come from the TV guide).
- Choose the channel (only channels with the archive turned on appear).
- Adjust the Start and End: type the time or use the −10 s / −1 s / +1 s / +10 s buttons. Under each edge you see the archive picture at that second.
- Write a title (empty = the channel name and the time) and click Make the clip.
A clip lasts between 2 seconds and 6 hours. A clip can only be made from what is still in the archive — once the retention days have passed, the segments are deleted. On ABR channels the clip takes the best quality in the archive.
Clip from a Library file
- Open Library, choose the film or episode and click Clip.
- Write the positions in the file as
1:02:03.4(hours:minutes:seconds.tenths) or use the ±10 s / ±1 s buttons. The pictures show the exact frame at each edge. - The default title is the film name and the positions, for example “Film 0:07–0:42”.
Sound that does not fit in an MP4 is converted to AAC automatically; the picture stays untouched.
“Record now”
On the page of a running channel, click Record:
- Stops by itself: after 15 minutes … 6 hours, or when you press Stop (6 hours at most).
- Title: empty = the channel name and the start time.
While it runs, the channel page shows the Recording since … bar with the clock, and the button becomes Stop the recording. When stopped, the recording catches a few more seconds (so the last segment is not lost), then the MP4 clip appears in Clips.
Recording works on channels without an archive too: Castreon keeps only what you record, not the whole channel. The channel must have an HLS output. If the server restarts during the recording, the recording continues after startup.
The Clips list
For each clip you see the Source (Archive, Library or Recording), the duration, the size and the status: Queued, Being made, Ready or Error. Clips are made one after another, in a queue.
- Play — the clip right in the page;
- Download MP4 — the file, with resumable download;
- Send to S3 — see below;
- Retry — a clip with an error is made again (for a recording, the material is kept until then);
- Rename / Delete — deleting removes the file from the server; the copy in S3 storage stays.
Clips stay on the Castreon server, in the data folder, until you delete them. The space used appears in the list and in Settings → Clips.
S3 storage
In Settings → Clips, fill in the storage: the address (endpoint), the bucket, the region, the folder in the bucket and the access keys. The secret key is write-only — after saving it is no longer shown. Test the connection writes and deletes a small file, so you know everything is fine.
- Send every finished clip automatically — otherwise you send from the list, on demand.
- Public address (optional) — for example the CDN domain in front of the bucket; the list then shows the link to the sent clip.
- Path-style addressing — for storage that does not use the bucket as a subdomain.
Clips go to <folder>/<channel>/<day>/. Large files are sent in parts.
The viewing link
The globe button in the Clips list opens the viewing link: the clip in the web player, with a seek bar, the brand and the language from Settings → Web player.
- Tick The viewing link is on.
- Choose who can watch the clip:
- Like the channel — the same protection as the channel player (the default for clips from the archive and recordings);
- Allowed websites only, Signed link or Public — exactly as for the web player.
- Click Save and copy the
<iframe>code or the direct link.
With a signed link, your website's server signs the text clip/<id>|<expiry> (or clip/<id>|<expiry>|<ip>) with the clip secret — the PHP and Node.js examples in the dialog are ready to copy. When you turn the link off, links already shared stop working too.
Frequently asked questions
Why “without re-encoding”? The clip keeps the original quality, is made very quickly and puts no load on the processor or the graphics card.
Does the clip start exactly where I chose? Yes. The frames before the start stay hidden in the file, and players start from the chosen frame.
Do clips work on HEVC and AV1 channels? Yes — the archive also keeps HEVC / AV1 channels, and the MP4 clip copies them.