Video Beta: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

FILES & FEEDS

What video formats, resolutions, and file sizes are supported?

• You can upload an MP4 or MOV file, up to 30GB.
• Supported codecs include: H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC) and MPEG-4.
• You can upload a 4K video to us, and we'll pass it along to YouTube at that resolution.
• HLS video for Apple and other apps will have a resolution of 1080p (HD).

If I upload a video, where does my audio version come from?

If you upload a video to Transistor, we’ll automatically extract the audio from that video, and use that as your audio episode for audio-only apps.

Can I have a mix of audio-only and video episodes in the same feed?

Yes. You can upload video for some episodes and keep others audio-only. Audio apps will just play the audio version of your video episodes.

Will audio-only Apple listeners be forced to download large video files?

No. Apple Video podcasts use HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), which means that the large video files are not downloaded to listener devices. Instead, they are streamed in small chunks at a time. This means that, by default, both video and audio-only listeners only have the audio file downloaded to their device. (However, there is a setting that allows users to turn on video downloads.)

PLATFORMS

Which podcast apps will show my video?

Apple Podcasts (once you're approved), YouTube (via our integration), and any open RSS app that supports HLS video. That includes Fountain, iHeart, and Amazon Music today, and more apps are adding support over time. Support for Spotify video will be available in the coming months.

Can I distribute video to Spotify?

We haven’t implemented the Spotify video integration yet; we’re hoping to have that built in the following months.

Can I import an existing video podcast feed?

Not really. If you have an RSS feed with videos in it, they would get converted to audio-only if you tried to import. For this reason, we recommend holding off on importing existing video feeds for now.

However, if you have an audio-only feed and have been manually uploading videos (e.g. to YouTube), then you can absolutely import your feed and manually replace each episode's media file with the corresponding video.

I've connected to Apple Video in Transistor, and uploaded a video, but it doesn't appear in the Apple Podcasts app

There are two reasons this could happen:

1. You haven't yet been approved by Apple for distributing video. Follow these steps here.
2. You're on a version of iOS earlier than 26.4, or MacOS desktop. Your audio will show up, but not the video. You'll need to upgrade before you can see videos in the Apple Podcasts app.
3. You're using the Apple Podcast Subscriptions feature to release an "early access" or "exclusive" episode. Apple doesn't support video for these yet, so you'll need to choose between Subscription Benefits or video.

FEATURES

Can I upload video using the Transistor API?

Nope. You can only upload video files using the Transistor dashboard (at least for now).

Will I get analytics for video?

We've implemented some basic analytics for video in the Transistor analytics page (no YouTube stats yet). More is coming soon.

Can I schedule a video episode?

Yes. Scheduling works the same as it does for audio episodes. When the publish time hits, we'll distribute video everywhere it's connected.

Will Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) work for video?

No. DAI is currently absent from video on all platforms. However, audio-only versions of your episode will continue to include DAI (except on HLS-enabled versions of Apple Podcasts, although some older iOS versions may continue to get DAI).

Will my show notes work properly on YouTube?

Yes. We automatically reformat your show notes for YouTube, including converting hyperlinks to text URLs. Timestamps in your show notes will work as YouTube chapters.

Will chapters and transcripts work for Apple Video?

No. Apple Video podcasts don't properly support chapters and transcripts yet. We hope that they will in future.

BILLING

How will billing work? Will I need to upgrade?

For video, you’ll need to be on the Professional plan or higher. During the beta, you'll have full access to all video features. However, we're still finalizing storage and resolution limits for each tier; so your access could change once we’re out of beta. We'll give you plenty of notice before anything changes.

YOUTUBE WORKFLOW

What happens if I was previously using the audio-only YouTube Integration?

Our YouTube Auto-posting Integration posts audio-only episodes to YouTube as videos with a static image.

If you were previously using this integration and have now connected to YouTube for full video:

• We will use the existing connection, if we can
• You will no longer have access to the old YouTube integration
• New audio-only episodes will no longer get pushed to YouTube (even if you never turned off the old integration)
• Old audio-only episodes that were already pushed to YouTube via the integration will not update in YouTube if you add video now (but Apple/RSS will still update)

Can I upload a unique thumbnail for YouTube in Transistor?

Yes! Since YouTube thumbnails are rectangular, rather than the traditional square podcast art, you can optionally upload a unique thumbnail for YouTube distribution. If you leave it blank, we'll just make a thumbnail for you by adding black sidebars to the square episode or show art.

Where do I edit more detailed YouTube settings for a video?

You'll edit all other YouTube-specific settings, like monetization, end-screens, and "made for kids", in YouTube.

Can I edit those YouTube settings before publishing the episode? What happens if I save an episode as draft or scheduled in Transistor?

Yes you can! Here's what happens:

• In Transistor, you save your episode as a draft or schedule it for later publishing
• We push it to YouTube as an Unlisted video that is not yet included in your show's playlist
• You can edit your thumbnail, tags, end screens, "made for kids," etc. while it's in this state
• When you click "save and publish" in Transistor, the video goes public on YouTube and gets added to your show's playlist
• Clicking save and publish will also overwrite the title and show notes on YouTube with what's in Transistor, so Transistor stays the source of truth for those fields

Updated on: 11/06/2026