Export / download Panopto content
Audio and video media files, as well as PowerPoint, Keynote and PDF content, can be exported for download by viewers
Downloading educational recordings
By default, downloads are only enabled for content owners (and not viewers).
Downloads can be enabled, but you will need to contact your local IT officer or academic administrator to ask them to do this.
Please click the following link for information on the new policy for educational recordings: Educational Recordings Policy
Contents
Exporting MP4 video and audio files
If enabled, MP4 copies (termed "podcasts") of Panopto sessions can be exported and downloaded for offline viewing, using the Download button at the top of the Panopto web viewer (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Download MP4 video files using the arrow icon at the top of the Panopto web viewer.
The default resolution of the MP4 files is 720p, though this can be increased to 1080p (full HD) in the individual Session Settings > Outputs tab (Fig. 2). These settings are only accessible to users with the 'Creator' role for that session. The type of MP4 file can also be changed from the default of "Tiled" (which places the primary and secondary streams next to each other in a tiled view) to alternatives such as "Primary Video Only" (which omits the screen streams) or "Secondary Video Only" (which includes audio and screen, but omits the webcam). These settings only affect the MP4 download, not the playback experience in the Panopto web viewer. Only one video MP4 output type is available at any one time, and when changes are made the MP4 will be automatically reprocessed on the cloud server before it is available for viewers to download.
Closed captions for a session will be embedded in the MP4 file, and can be viewed in some media player apps such as VLC media player (available at the following link: https://www.videolan.org/). Embedded captions can be enabled or disabled by the viewer. Captions can also be downloaded in a plain-text, open-source standard SRT format, independently of the media files, by users with the Creator role. A detailed guide on closed captions within Panopto is available here.
MP4 downloads can be disabled per session or per folder, within the Session Settings > Overview tab or the Folder Settings > Settings tab respectively by selecting either "No one" for the Downloads option (which will prevent anyone from accessing the MP4 output) or "Admins, videographers and creators" (which will prevent only students from downloading the MP4 file). The Folder settings are shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4. MP4 downloads can be disabled for all sessions within a folder.
Remote students with low bandwidth internet connections (e.g. those in shared accommodation) may have trouble connecting to the internet reliably at peak times, and may prefer to download MP4 files overnight and view them offline during the day. By downloading a recording of a lecture, the student is entering a mutual agreement with the University that recordings may only be viewed by that student and not distributed to a wider audience. Both the lecturer and the University own rights in the recordings. Copyright protects the imagery of the slides, the words spoken by the lecturer and the recording itself. Unauthorised sharing of material downloaded from Panopto will be codified as a disciplinary offence.
Exporting PowerPoint, Keynote and PDF documents
In addition to downloading audio and video media files, viewers are able to download PowerPoint and Keynote presentations, as well as PDF documents, that have been uploaded to a Panopto session. At present, PowerPoint and Keynote downloads are disabled by default and must be enabled per session by a user with the Creator role by visiting Session Settings > Streams and checking Download - Allow for each PowerPoint or Keynote presentation (Fig. 5). PDF documents can also be uploaded on this page.
Viewers may then download the selected PowerPoint or Keynote presentation files from the Attachments tab in the Panopto web viewer (Fig. 6). If no PowerPoint or Keynote files are available to download, the Attachments tab will be hidden.
Fig. 6. PowerPoint and Keynote presentation files may be downloaded from the Attachments tab in the Panopto web viewer.
Presenter notes in PowerPoint downloads
Be aware that any presenter notes will be visible in downloadable PowerPoint files. If the PowerPoint file has embedded presenter notes, the lecturer may prefer to leave PowerPoint downloads disabled, convert their PowerPoint to PDF and upload the PDF file instead.
Uploaded PDF files may be downloaded using the PDF button underneath the Panopto player window (Fig. 7). Note that unlike PowerPoint and Keynote presentations, PDF documents are not captured and uploaded directly by the Panopto recorder, and instead must be uploaded manually using the web interface. PDF documents displayed on screen during the recording would still be captured in the screen stream.
Fig. 7. PDF files that have been uploaded to the Panopto portal can be downloaded from within the Panopto web viewer.
