VidCellar Lite
Lite is a free video library. Videos stay on your WordPress server. Visitors can watch, search, rate, and browse categories without an account.
Add categories first
Go to VidCellar → Categories. Enter a name up to 50 characters, such as Interviews or Short Film, and choose Add Category. Names appear on the Watch page exactly as you typed them, as filter buttons, and in the category menu when you add a video.
If you have not added any categories and no video has a category yet, the library uses a single category named General.
Add a video
Go to VidCellar → Videos and complete Add a video.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Title | Required. Shown on the card and the watch page. |
| Description | Optional. Line breaks are kept on the watch page. |
| Access | Always Free in Lite. The form stores the price as $0.00. |
| Category | Required. Pick a category you created. |
| Trailer | Optional video from the WordPress Media Library. Trailers play in public above the full video. |
| Video file | Required. Must be a video file. The uploader accepts files up to 30 GB when the server has the disk space and request limits to finish the job. |
| Thumbnail | Optional JPEG, PNG, or WebP. Used as the card image and player poster. |
With JavaScript enabled, large files upload in resumable chunks sized under this server’s PHP request limit. A failed chunk is retried. If you refresh the page, select the same file again to resume. Choose Cancel upload to stop. After the file is assembled, VidCellar checks that it is still a video and saves it in private storage.
If the whole request is larger than the server allows before chunked upload can start, WordPress reports the current post_max_size limit. Raise post_max_size and upload_max_filesize together if your host blocks the upload.
After a video is saved
The success notice includes a Watch it now link. The catalog table lists title, category, views, rating, and streaming status.
- Edit changes the title, description, category, trailer, and thumbnail. Leave the thumbnail empty to keep the current image.
- The category dropdown in the table saves that field on its own.
- Add Trailer or Change Trailer picks a Media Library video. Choose Save on that row. Clear removes it.
- Optimize for streaming queues a separate H.264/AAC MP4. The original file is kept. Status moves through Queued, Processing, and Optimized. Playback switches to the optimized copy when the job finishes.
- Delete removes that video.
- Download Existing Videos (CSV) exports titles, categories, views, ratings, streaming status, and creation dates.
Optimization needs FFmpeg at a standard server path such as /usr/bin/ffmpeg. Without it, visitors still play the original upload, and the Streaming column shows FFmpeg unavailable.
Lite settings
When Pro is not active, VidCellar → Settings links to Videos and Categories and holds one option: delete plugin tables and uploaded videos on uninstall. Leave it unchecked if you may reinstall later. The Plugins list also links to Settings, Need Help?, and the Pro purchase site.
What stays on your site
Lite does not send video files to a remote video service and does not require a VidCellar account. Metadata and files remain on this WordPress installation. Describe that storage in your privacy policy. If you later enable a Pro storage provider, that provider receives a copy after the local upload finishes.