How to set correct mime-type on videos in Amazon S3

Do you have any trouble getting your videos to play in some browsers with FV Player (or any other HTML 5 video player)? Here’s how you fix it.

If your mp4 videos on Amazon S3 do not have the proper MIME type, also known as content-type, you will have to edit them to be able to play these videos. This applies especially to Internet Explorer 9 and 10 if an MP4 video has wrong mime type. This can be fixed as a batch operation using Bucket Explorer.

Follow these simple steps to fix the problem:

1. Where to check if MIME type of my video is set up properly?
   Log in to your Amazon Web Services (AWS) account at https://console.aws.amazon.com, and click S3 in the menu:
   

   Click the bucket to which your video was uploaded, select the particular video, click Properties:
   

   and then click Metadata:
   

   

   There should be the following values:
   Key: Content-Type Value: video/mp4

   but definitely NOT application/octet-stream.

2. How to fix it?
   In your AWS account click your username and then click Security Credentials.
   

   

   If a window shows up informing you that you are accessing the security credentials of your AWS account, close it by clicking X in its top-right corner.
   

   You will need both your secret Access Key and Access Key ID.

   

   You can’t view your Secret Access Key. If you do not know it you can create a new pair. Please save it as you will not be able to get it later.

   

3. Download a trial version of Bucket Explorer by following this link: www.bucketexplorer.com/be-download.html. Choose the operating system that your computer runs on (Windows, Linux or Mac OS X) and click Download. Once downloaded, execute it. If you downloaded a version labeled as “Also works with USB”, the program runs instantly. Otherwise installation is carried out.
4. When opening Bucket Explorer for the first time, click Get 30 days Free-Trial License. The other times click Continue with trial version.
   

   
   Bucket Explorer license verification

5. When Bucket Explorer opens, enter the access and secret keys from Amazon Web Services and type “Amazon S3” to the Name field. Then press GO.
   

   
   Enter Amazon Web Services credentials to work in Bucket Explorer.

6. Choose the Save Without Password option when the dialogue box opens.
   

   
   Save Credentials dialog box in Bucket Explorer.

7. Now you can see all your buckets from Amazon S3. Choose a bucket and press Show Full Path.
   

   
   Buckets from Amazon S3 in Bucket Explorer

8. Now you can see the full path of the selected bucket.
   

   
   Full path of the selected bucket

9. Click on the magnifier glass icon and select the Search By Prefix and Delimiter option.
   

   
   Search by prefix and delimiter

10. When a new window opens, type mp4 to the Delimiter field and press Search.
    

    
    Type mp4 to Bucket Explorer Prefix and Delimiter search.

11. Now you can see how many items match the search request.
    

    
    Result of search for items with mp4 delimiter.

12. Select all files. Click on the Batch Operation icon in the bottom row of icons. Select Update Metadata and then Edit Metadata.
    

    
    Editing metadata using batch operation.

13. A new Edit Metadata window will open. Press Add to continue.
    

    
    Bucket Explorer edit metadata window

14. Another box will open. Choose Content-Type from the drop-down list in the HTTP Header field.
    

    
    Choose HTTP header from drop-down list

15. Type video/mp4 to the Header Value field and press Add.
    

    
    Add header value

16. The Content-Type key with the video/mp4 value will appear in the Custom Header field of the Edit Metadata window. Click Edit Metadata.
    

    
    Key and value are added to custom header

17. You can see the progress of editing when you click on the Queued Files tab. Duration of the editing will depend on the number of files. It may take several minutes.
    

    
    Progress of editing

18. The actual count of the queue is available in the Statistics tab.
    

    

    Count of files edited by Bucket Explorer

19. When the editing is finished, choose a video from the edited bucket to test it is played correctly. The Video OK admin note will appear above the video.
    

    
    Video OK admin note will appear above video

From now on your videos should play well in HTML 5 and specifically in FV Player. Do not hesitate to let us know if you ran into any issues or have any further tips for using Amazon S3 for HTML 5 videos.

Thanks for using FV Player!