Four settings pages in Projector get set up together, and they share more than they differ: Vimeo, Frame.io, S3 archiving, and the global settings for posters, GIF clips and privacy. This guide puts them in one place. It covers what each service needs from you, what the global defaults do, and the limits our documentation states.
We build Projector, so we will be plain about the boundaries. Everything below comes from our own help pages and from answers our team has given. Where a detail is not in those pages, we say so instead of guessing. JW Player has its own guide, connect Projector to JW Player, and we do not repeat it here.
What every connection shares: payloads, tokens and one machine
Projector automates the upload of customized videos to an account you own on a streaming service. It organizes its work into payloads and missions. A payload is a collection of one or more missions, and a mission is one job inside it. A mission can export data-merged Autografs to digital files, transcode the output, deploy it to a storage and streaming platform, log metadata back to your data source, and clean up scratch files. Many settings are made at the payload level, and the streaming service is one of them.
Three rules apply to every service on this page, so we state them once.
First, one streaming service per payload. You can authorize more than one service in Projector and choose which to use for each payload. You cannot send videos to multiple streaming services in the same payload. If you want one batch on Frame.io for internal review and on Vimeo for a public page, those are two payloads, and from your data source you choose which videos go into each.
Second, one data source per payload. Projector supports QUE or a spreadsheet as the data source. With a spreadsheet, the render-status and stream-status columns are always required. After a mission deploys, Projector writes metadata from the streaming service, the storage service, or both, back to your data source. The help page does not list the exact fields, so open your data source after the first test and see what arrived. To follow a single video through the pipeline, read our walkthrough of stream status. It applies to every destination.
Third, one computer. Projector has to run on the same computer where Templater is installed and where its output files are stored. Do your testing from that machine.
Titles and descriptions work the same way on every service that supports them. You configure unique video titles and descriptions in the Projector interface using tokenization, and that is available for JW Player, Vimeo and Frame.io. Pick a token from your data that tells one version from the next. The stream-title and stream-description columns or keys in a data source are no longer supported for this purpose, so older instructions that rely on them are out of date.
Credentials get one rule as well. Vimeo gives you a client secret, Frame.io gives you an access token, and S3 gives you a secret key. Treat each one like a password and keep it out of shared documents and chat threads.
If you want to see how these pieces fit into the whole product first, read our overview of what Projector is.
Vimeo: a paid account and a small app you create
Connecting Projector to Vimeo takes a paid Vimeo account and an app that you create yourself in Vimeo’s developer area. Then there are a few settings that decide how each uploaded video looks.
Start with the one hard requirement. Projector only supports paid Vimeo accounts. Our help pages give the reason: Vimeo limits API access, storage and transfers on free accounts. We do not list Vimeo’s plans or what they cost, because Vimeo sets those. Check their own plans page. Our setup page also notes that JW Player may offer a quicker, less expensive option.
If you do not have an account yet, go to vimeo.com, click Get Started in the upper right corner, and follow the on-screen instructions to join. Then click Upgrade, select a paid account level, and follow the on-screen instructions to finish creating your account.
Is Vimeo the right place for these videos at all? Projector supports three streaming services, and you can use one of them or all three. The docs describe Vimeo as very user-friendly and consumer-focused. It can be easier for people who are new to customized video, who produce fewer than 1,000 videos at a time, or who only produce video occasionally.
Pick Your Service
Vimeo vs. Frame.io: which fits your workflow
- Best for
- VimeoTeams new to customized video
- Frame.ioTeams needing online approval process
- Batch size
- VimeoFewer than 1,000 videos at a time
- Frame.ioLarge-scale, enterprise producers
- Approval write-back
- VimeoNot applicable
- Frame.ioOne-way only, status not written back
- Credential needed
- VimeoClient ID and client secret
- Frame.ioAccess token and folder ID
Choose by where the video goes next.
Creating the Vimeo app, field by field
Projector uses a Vimeo app through its connection with your personal Vimeo account. You create the app once, then use its client ID and client secret when you configure streaming with Vimeo. Log in to Vimeo, go to developer.vimeo.com, and click Create an App in the upper right corner. The values below are the recommended ones, and the required ones are noted.
Four Destinations
What each streaming destination is for
| Destination | Credential needed | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Vimeo | Client ID and client secret | New to customized video; occasional production |
| Frame.io | Access token and folder ID | Internal review and approval workflow |
| JW Player | See JW Player guide | Enterprise-level, high personalization, white-label |
| S3 | Access key ID and secret key | Archiving finished files for reference |
App name. We recommend your company name followed by the word Projector, for example “YourCompanyName Projector”.
Brief description. We recommend: “An application to deploy video assets generated by Dataclay Projector.”
Will people besides you be able to access your app? Select No. Projector only uses this app through its connection with your personal Vimeo account.
Agree to the terms of service and click Create app. Note your client ID and client secret, because you will need them when you configure streaming with Vimeo.
Then go to the Authentication section. Under Your callback URLs, click Add URL and enter the required value https://dataclay.com/vimeo-auth.
Next, click Edit Settings. App Logo URL is required, and the value is the address of the Dataclay emblem image given on our setup page. App URL is also required, and the value is https://dataclay.com/projector. For App description, enter “You are now authorized to access Vimeo.” That is the message you will see when authentication for a payload succeeds. Click Update. Vimeo and your Vimeo app are now ready to use with Projector.
If you lose the client ID or secret later, sign in to developer.vimeo.com, click your avatar, choose API Apps, and open the application you created for Projector. Both values are shown on that page. If you do not have developer access, ask the person who manages your company’s Vimeo. Our setup page lists “Authorize Projector for Vimeo” as the next related task. The saved page for this guide does not spell out that step, so follow the authorization steps in Projector’s own help pages.
Vimeo embed presets
Vimeo lets you create embed presets, which are web players with your own branding and preferences. Your presets are always used when viewers stream from a player embedded in your website, but they are only used for Unlisted videos streamed from Vimeo. Public and password-protected videos streamed on Vimeo always use the default appearance settings. Public videos on Vimeo also cannot use custom player presets.
To find an existing preset, log in to Vimeo, click Settings, click Video in the left column, then Embed presets, find the preset you want and copy its name. If a preset is not showing on your videos, check the privacy level first.
Vimeo grouping
In the grouping name field, enter the name of the Vimeo grouping you want the video placed in. Our docs use the same field for a JW Player playlist. The grouping field is described only for those two services.
A first test on Vimeo
Do not point a whole data source at a new connection and walk away. Use a single row or a very small handful first. Then open the test video on Vimeo. Check that the privacy level is the one you chose, that the poster is the frame you meant, and that the title and description came out of your tokens correctly. Only then widen the batch. If your interest in Vimeo is interactive video, read our walk-through of building interactive Vimeo videos with Templater and Projector.
Frame.io: a token, a folder ID and a one-way limit
Connecting Projector to Frame.io takes two pieces of information, an access token and a folder ID, and both come from Frame.io. Our docs describe Frame.io as especially useful for teams that need online video hosting for the approval process. It also caters to large-scale, enterprise producers. The limit to understand before you choose it is the direction of the flow, and it gets its own section below.
What Projector needs from Frame.io
You need a Frame.io account, an access token, and the folder ID of the place the videos should go. Projector needs the token and the folder ID to authorize Frame.io.
If you do not have an account yet, go to frame.io, click Start Building, and follow the on-screen instructions. Next, log in and go to developer.frame.io/app/tokens, then follow the on-screen instructions to create the access token. Make a note of it, because Projector asks for it.
The second value is the folder ID, a 32-character string shown in the last part of the Frame.io URL when you browse to a folder or a project. There is one catch in our docs. If you are at the root of a project, you must click Media first, and only then does the URL show the folder ID you need.
Projector uploads into the folder that ID names, so the folder is a decision about your review workflow. Decide the structure before the first batch, for example one folder for a campaign, so the finished videos land where reviewers expect them.
One fact matters if you connected Frame.io before. Projector 1.0.6 upgraded the Frame.io integration to the V4 API, which uses a new authentication method. The release notes confirm the change but do not spell out every difference in what you click. If a teammate’s older note describes a different way of connecting, check it against the current Set Up Streaming with Frame.io page on the Dataclay support site.
Why you would pick Frame.io, and the one-way limit
The reason to pick Frame.io is the review step. If your videos go to a client or an internal team before they go anywhere else, it is the service in the lineup our docs point to for that. If the videos go straight to viewers, the docs point you toward the other services.
The flow runs one way. Projector uploads videos to Frame.io, but approval status does not get written back to your data source. Jon, our technical and support lead, confirmed that on October 26 and said a two-way integration is planned, with no specifics given. Until it ships, nothing in Projector will mark a row approved because a reviewer approved it in Frame.io. If a later step depends on approval, someone has to carry that decision from Frame.io to your sheet or your QUE campaign.
Projector does write other things back. As covered above, it writes metadata from the streaming service back to the data source after a mission deploys.
A first test on Frame.io
Do not start with a full batch. Set up one payload with a few missions, point it at a test folder in Frame.io, and enable Projection. When you enable Projection, Projector checks the data source on the interval you enter in the Check every field. Then open the folder and check the titles, the poster and the privacy. Our docs do not map the privacy levels onto Frame.io’s own sharing controls, so confirm the result inside Frame.io on your first test upload.
If Projection reports that there are no missions to deploy, the troubleshooting page names one cause. If you selected Enable AEP rendering in the Export section, you must not also select a video file asset extension in your data source, because those two settings cannot be used for the same project.
S3 archiving: keeping finished files in a bucket you own
Projector can save finished videos to an S3 bucket that you provide, along with the poster image and the GIF clip that go with each video. You set it up in the Storage section of the Projector window, once per payload. If you do not archive, you do not need a storage service at all.
Archiving lets you save completed video assets to a cloud location for historical reference or possible future use. The location is one you provide and manage. Archiving settings are configured at the payload level, and each mission in the payload is archived separately.
One setting needs care. If you told a payload in the Transcode section to archive posters, GIF clips, or both, you must also enable and set up archiving in the Storage section. Our docs say that if you do not, Projector skips archiving completely and those settings are ignored.
What to gather first
Projector interacts with your bucket through a storage account that you provide. Our docs say the account can be a root user or a user with public read permissions to the bucket you use with Projector. If you do not manage your own storage account, ask your administrator to set this up for you.
Have these ready:
- The access key ID for the account.
- The secret key for the account.
- The name of the bucket, exactly as your storage console shows it.
- The region the bucket is in.
- The folder name you want for this payload.
Our docs say the secret key is not stored by the storage provider, that you or your administrator created it when the account was set up, and that it is very important to keep a record of it in a secure location.
Before S3 Setup
Have these ready before connecting S3
- Access key ID for the account
- Secret key for the account
- Bucket name, exactly as your storage console shows it
- Region the bucket is in
- Folder name you want for this payload
To find the details, our docs say to sign in to the storage account, open the identity and access management area, click your account, and note the access key and the client secret. Then open the buckets area and note the bucket name and the region the bucket is in. If the account uses multi-factor authentication, also open Users, click your user, and open Security Credentials. In the Multi-Factor Authentication section, note the Identifier value. If no authentication device is set up, you can assign one there and follow the on-screen instructions.
The steps in the Projector window
- In the Storage section, select the Enable archiving to storage checkbox.
- For Provider, select the S3 option, then click Setup.
- Enter your Access Key ID.
- Enter your Secret Key.
- Select the S3 Region that matches the region where your bucket is located.
- For S3 Bucket, enter the bucket name. Our docs say this must be an exact match for the name displayed for the bucket in your console.
- For S3 Folder, enter the folder name for this payload. If the folder already exists inside the bucket, Projector archives the files there. If it does not, Projector first creates a folder with that name and then archives into it.
- Click Save/Authorize.
S3 Archiving Setup
How to archive videos to your S3 bucket
-
Enable archivingSelect the Enable archiving to storage checkbox in the Storage section.
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Choose S3For Provider, select the S3 option, then click Setup.
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Enter Access Key IDEnter your Access Key ID.
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Enter Secret KeyEnter your Secret Key.
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Select regionSelect the S3 Region that matches the region where your bucket is located.
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Enter bucket nameFor S3 Bucket, enter the bucket name, must be an exact match for the name displayed in your console.
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Enter folder nameFor S3 Folder, enter the folder name for this payload; if it does not exist, Projector creates it.
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Save and authorizeClick Save/Authorize.
Once Projection is enabled, every step you configured for the payload is automated, and Projector checks your data source and takes action based on your settings.
Planning and limits
Because the folder is entered per payload, missions that need different folders belong in different payloads. Our suggestion, not a documented rule: run a small payload first, then open the bucket in your storage console and confirm the files landed where you expected.
The Transcode section also has a Delete original after transcode checkbox, which our docs say to select if you will not need the original again. Decide on it knowing which file you want to keep.
Projector currently supports S3 buckets for archiving, and the bucket must be in a storage account that you provide. Custom storage integrations can be discussed with Dataclay, and more options are planned for the future, with no dates given. Projector is an installed application, and our site says your video assets are never visible to another party, in transit or at rest.
Global settings, posters and GIF clips
When you deploy to a streaming service, Projector lets you configure global settings for privacy, posters, GIF clips, grouping, and similar features. The settings and steps vary with the streaming service you use. You can set your preferred values as defaults, Projector stores those choices in your preferences, and you can change them for a different payload. You can also choose, mission by mission, whether to use the global settings at all.
Privacy: pick the owner-only default
The Privacy drop-down in the Streaming Globals section offers three levels.
The first, “Anyone can access this video,” makes the video public. Anyone with the link can view it. The help page says videos meant to reach the broadest possible audience may use it, but that for personalized videos you may not want everyone to see every video. It also notes that some services limit features for public videos. The docs do not recommend it for personalized videos.
The second, “No one except the owner can access this video,” is the one the help page recommends as the best default. It lets you play through the video and make sure everything is right, and it lets you stage videos before a marketing campaign. When you are ready, you change the privacy setting directly on the streaming service.
The third, “Only members of the platform can access the video,” lets any user of the streaming service view it. The help page calls it similar to public, but the viewer must belong to the service. It is not the best option for personalized videos and is not recommended.
The advice is to start private and change the setting on the streaming service when you are ready. Our addition is that you should treat that release as its own step, because a video left private is not visible to anyone but you.
Posters: the frame viewers see before they press play
A poster is the video still or static image used to promote your video on a streaming service, also called a thumbnail. Projector lets you configure the precise video frame that is used, and you can also use posters in social media, email, or other marketing campaigns.
The global setting is Poster Time, a value in seconds. The streaming service creates the poster from that time stamp in your video. The help page cautions that this frame may or may not be a personalized or attention-grabbing image. Dataclay strongly recommends creating a poster image in Projector, so you can be confident you have done everything you can to improve engagement.
The two settings work as a pair. If you created a poster image, you can leave Poster Time blank. If you enter a value anyway, it acts as a backup in case there is a problem with the poster image. If you leave it blank and do not create a poster image, the streaming service uses the first frame of your video.
The help page puts one point in a note: it is extremely important to know how long your customized videos are. If a video is three seconds long and you enter 3.5 seconds, the streaming service uses the first frame as the poster. This is tricky when your videos are different lengths. The help page’s example is videos of 1.5, 1.75 and 2.5 seconds. Entering 2 means only the third video has that frame as its poster.
If your videos vary in length, a single time stamp is fragile. Our guide to making a comp match its content length covers how those lengths come about. If you rely on a time stamp, our own view is to pick one earlier than your shortest video and treat it as the backup rather than the plan.
The Projector FAQ adds one more point. It takes time for Projector to extract a still image and convert the image format for each mission. If you are producing hundreds of videos, lower image quality can save time, but it might not give the viewer the experience you want. The advice is to configure the best quality image possible while still controlling production time. The help pages give no figures for how long extraction takes, so we do not either.
GIF clips
A GIF clip is a short excerpt from your video saved in the bandwidth-friendly GIF format. Projector lets you configure when the clip starts and how long it lasts. Streaming services do not use GIF clips. You use them to promote your videos on social media, in email, or in text marketing.
The Transcode help page asks whether you should create a GIF preview. If you only plan to stream the video on a streaming service, probably not. The more videos you produce, the more time it takes to create a GIF for each one, and there can be storage implications as well. A GIF preview is a great tool when you plan to promote videos on social media, embed them on a website, or deliver them as part of a direct email or messaging campaign. If you skip it, leave the checkbox cleared.
GIF clips and poster images are configured in the Transcode section, which has checkboxes to create a GIF preview, archive the GIF preview and archive the poster image. Archiving saves them to the storage location described in the S3 section above. Because streaming services do not use GIF previews, our docs say that if you create one you should always archive it.
Transcoding settings for streaming
If you transcode before deploying, the docs tell you to always select AAC as the audio codec when sending to a streaming service, because streamers require audio in that format. They recommend a pixel format of yuv420p unless viewers will use something other than a standard computer screen or mobile device, and an audio bitrate of 128. H.264, which the MP4 format uses, is the codec the docs describe as optimized for streaming. For more on this step, see what transcoding does in Projector.
When some videos need different settings
If some missions in a payload need different settings, the help page gives two options. You can separate the missions into two payloads, or you can change the settings for specific videos on the streaming service itself. The second option might make more sense if only one or two missions need different treatment.
The Projector FAQ gives an example. A video producer named Maya renders 500 short promotional videos from one composition. She personalizes 499 of them and emails each to an individual customer. The last one is a non-personalized version she wants to stream on her own Vimeo channel and promote on social media. She splits the work into two payloads and picks which videos go in each from her data source. The personalized campaign is transcoded for mobile viewing, gets a GIF clip, and uses a personalized video frame as the poster. The non-personalized Vimeo video is transcoded for optimized streaming, needs no GIF clip, and uses a different frame for its poster. Our rule of thumb from that example: separate audiences get separate payloads.
Which service fits, and the bottom line
Choose by where the video goes next. Vimeo is the user-friendly option, suited to teams new to customized video, batches under 1,000 videos at a time, or occasional production. Frame.io is the one our docs describe for the approval process, with the one-way limit above. JW Player is described as designed for enterprise-level producers with a high level of personalization and white-label options, and it has its own setup guide. S3 is not a destination for viewers. It is where you keep finished files, posters and GIF clips for reference. If you are comparing products, Que versus Projector lays out the difference, and the Learn section lists the rest of our guides.
The short version: one service per payload, a small test before a full batch, owner-only privacy until you are ready, a poster image instead of a time stamp, and archiving switched on in the Storage section if you ask for it in Transcode. The details above come from Dataclay’s own help pages as captured in October 2026. Settings can change as Projector is updated, so check the current help pages before a large run.
Before you set anything up, here are the questions the saved help pages answer most directly. Each one points back to a section above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I connect Projector to a free Vimeo account?
No. Projector only supports paid Vimeo accounts. Our help pages explain that Vimeo limits API access, storage and transfers for free accounts, and Projector needs those to upload your videos. Create or upgrade an account at vimeo.com first. Our setup page notes that JW Player may offer a quicker, less expensive option.
Does Projector send Frame.io approval status back to my data source?
No. The Frame.io integration is one-way, so Projector uploads videos but does not write approval status back. Jon, our technical and support lead, confirmed this on October 26 and said a two-way integration is planned, with no specifics yet. If your process depends on sign-off, someone has to carry the decision from Frame.io into your sheet or your QUE campaign.
Can one payload send videos to Vimeo and Frame.io at the same time?
No. You can authorize more than one streaming service and choose one for each payload, but a single payload cannot send to more than one service. If you need the same batch on Frame.io for review and on Vimeo for viewers, set up two payloads. You choose which missions from your data source go into each one.
What privacy setting should I use for personalized videos?
Our docs recommend the setting where no one except the owner can access the video as the best default. It lets you play through the videos, confirm they are right and stage them before a campaign. When you are ready, you change privacy directly on the streaming service. The docs say the public and members-only levels are not recommended for personalized videos.
What happens if I archive posters or GIF clips but never set up the Storage section?
Our docs say Projector skips archiving completely and those archive settings are ignored. To fix it, open the Storage section, select the Enable archiving to storage checkbox, and finish the S3 setup with your access key, secret key, region, bucket name and folder.
What does Poster Time do if the value is longer than my video?
Poster Time is a value in seconds, and the streaming service creates the poster from that time stamp. If the value is longer than the video, the service uses the first frame instead. A three-second video with a poster time of 3.5 seconds gets its first frame. Dataclay strongly recommends creating a poster image in Projector instead.
Do streaming services use the GIF clip Projector creates?
No. Streaming services do not use GIF clips. You make them to promote videos on social media, in email, on a website embed or in text marketing. Because of that, our docs say that if you create a GIF clip you should always archive it. If you only plan to stream the video, you probably do not need one.
How do I set a different title for each video?
Use tokenization in the Projector interface. It is available for JW Player, Vimeo and Frame.io, and the tokens pull values from your data. The older stream-title and stream-description columns in a data source are no longer supported for this purpose, so a title set only in a sheet column will not carry over.
