IT Services - Get an External Embed Code for a Kaltura Playlist

Overview

All Kaltura users at UC San Diego (i.e. all community members with active directory credentials) are able to create channels, create channel playlists, and grab embed codes for those playlists, allowing them to put them on external websites. (Hence the term "external" embed code.) You can only find this embed code in MediaSpace - we've disabled this feature in Canvas to prevent confusion on how to embed videos and playlists within Canvas.

Critical Concepts

Prerequisites

You must be a channel manager. In order to get a playlist's embed code, you must be able to access and edit the channel's settings. Only channel managers (or channel owners) can do that.

Things to Keep in Mind

You'll need administrative access to a web page in order to use the embed code. It may go without saying, but in order to use an embed code on an external web site, you have to be able to edit the HTML of a page.
If you're posting a playlist of videos on an external website, all of the videos must be accessible. You may have heard that the Department of Justice has created an enforcement deadline of April 2027 for all postsecondary educational content to be fully accessible, including multimedia. This means that all of the media in your playlist should be fully accessible. While there are multiple requirements, the two most important are that your videos should have ≥ 99% accurate captions and audio descriptions.

Steps to Take

If you're not already logged into MediaSpace:
1. Go to https://mediaspace.ucsd.edu.
2. Click the profile icon at the top right of the page and select Login.
3. Enter your active directory credentials.
Click the profile icon again and select My Channels.
Find the channel whose playlist you want to embed, hover your mouse over the thumbnail, and click the pencil icon.
Click the Playlists tab near the top of the page.
Find the playlist in question and click the embed icon in the "Actions" column.

The Playlists tab in MediaSpace channel configuration, showing a table of playlists with an embed icon in the Actions column.

A window will open with additional configuration options for your embedded video.
1. Choose player: If applicable, this menu allows you to select what player you want to use. (As of May 2026, there's only the "default" option.)
2. Max embed size: Here you select what size you want the playlist player to be (in pixels).
3. Embed type: here you can select between iFrame, dynamic, and auto. If you're not sure, just use iFrame.

What's the difference between iframe, dynamic, and auto?

In case you’re curious about the differences between the three "embed type" options:

iFrame (default): This is the most common and reliable option. It drops the playlist into your page in a tidy little frame — simple, stable, and works well on a variety of platforms. Recommended for most situations.
Dynamic: This one uses JavaScript to load the playlist into the page. It’s a little more flexible for developers who want to control how the player behaves or fits into complex page layouts. If you don’t know what that means, you probably don’t need it.
Auto: This option tries to be smart and pick between iframe or dynamic based on the environment. It might help if you’re embedding into a custom site and aren’t sure what works best — but honestly, iFrame is usually still the safest bet.

Bottom line: just stick with "iframe" unless you’ve got a specific reason not to.

Once you've selected your embed configuration options, click Copy Embed. The embed code will be on your computer's clipboard, ready to be pasted. (If you're nervous about losing the embed code, you can drop it temporarily into a text document.)

Now you can drop that embed code onto a web page to which you have edit access.

If you still have questions or need additional assistance, feel free to contact us at kaltura@ucsd.edu.