KastleVideo – Upgrade Information

Adobe Flash Player Replacement

Kastle will be pushing a very important upgrade to the KastleVideo portal and devices this week. As part of our managed service, we are committed to ensuring continuity of operations for you as the technology landscape changes.   As you may know, the video player on the Kastle Video portal currently uses Adobe Flash.  Your cameras support video streaming into Flash.  Support for Flash is being discontinued by major browsers at the end of 2020.

What’s in this Upgrade?

This update introduces our new HTML video player as a first step towards this year’s retirement of Adobe Flash.  Our new HTML video player adds exciting new features while continuing to offer familiar controls available in the current Flash player.  Both players will be available to you for the next several months to give you ample time to gain familiarity with the new one.  Additionally, we will be pushing updates to your cameras to make them compatible with the new video player.  This will cause cameras to restart and video will be interrupted for a few minutes and then return to normal activity.

Which parts of the Portal are changing?

In this release, Kastle introduces a Flash-free Video Player on the History > Search Eventspage.  In future releases, other pages containing the Video Player will be updated.  To see the new Player, your KastleVideo device firmware must be updated.  Updates will be pushed in conjunction with this Portal release.

For now, the Flash Video Player will remain the default.  But once your device is updated, we encourage you to try the new Flash-free Video Player.  To do this, click on the hyperlink located above the Player (see screenshot below).

What Can I Do with the new Flash-free Player?

The new Video Player has a distinctive look and new features (see screenshot).

1. Larger video playback window
2. Video capture menu for navigation to Extended Export, downloading or printing single video frame
3. Camera specifics including MAC ID
4. Switch to DVR view from Live or Clip Playback view
5. Live view in HD
6. Display view in a pop-up window
7. Full screen mode

DVR functionality has also been updated:

1. Displays DVR mode and the date/time of the video.
2. Return to Live mode. This has moved to the left side of the player.
3. Step Back/Forward by x frames. User can select between 1 and 30 frames to skip.
4. Stop playback.
5. Increase Playback rate. A true fast forward at 2/4/8/16x normal playback rate (This is new!).
6. Return to normal playback rate.
7. View Previous Event Clip closest to DVR playback time.
8. View Next Event Clip closest to DVR playback time.

FAQ & Troubleshooting Tips

Q:  On the day of the release, I was watching video and it stopped playing.  Why did this happen? How do I fix it?

A:  It could be that your device received its firmware update during this time which can take up to 10 minutes. Once the firmware is updated you will need to refresh the page.  You can do this a couple different ways. If you have a computer keyboard, click F5. Or if you are using a mouse in a browser window, click the Refresh icon to the left of the URL bar.  You may also log out and log back in to restore playback.

Q:  How if I am using the new Video Player and I get an error message?

A:  It is likely that your device has not been updated for the new Flash-free Video Player. Click the hyperlink “Switch to Classic Video Player” to go back to the old Player window.

Mobile App

The KastleVideo mobile app will also be updated. Details will be made available soon.

Extended Hours for Support

For additional questions, please reach out to your Account Manager.