# Players

Players define **how media is presented and played back**. They control the UI, behavior, features, security, and sharing options for videos, playlists, podcasts, and live streams.

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{% hint style="info" %}
From the **Players** module, you can centrally manage all player configurations. Using our [**Player SDK**](https://player.docs.3q.video/) is recommended when working with a large number of videos or when you want to tightly integrate the player with your frontend and control it via methods and events. The player automatically fetches the configured settings from our backend. If needed, you can override specific parameters by passing them to the SDK during initialization.
{% endhint %}

#### Player overview

The **Players** view lists all available players with:

* **Title**
* **Project scope** (Global or Project-specific)
* **Description**
* **Creation date**

You can search, sort, and switch between **All Players**, **Global Players**, and **Project-Specific Players**.

#### Create & manage players

Click **Create Player** to define a new player configuration. Players can be:

* **Global** – available across all projects
* **Project-specific** – restricted to a single project

One player can be marked as the **default player** for a project or globally.

***

### Player settings

Player configuration is organized into clear sections.

#### Basics

Define general metadata and availability:

* **Title & Description**
* **UI language**
* **Project availability**
* **Default player** selection

#### Settings

Control playback behavior and appearance:

* **Accent color**
* **Autoplay options** (muted, scroll-based, etc.)
* **Initial audio & subtitle language**
* **Initial video quality**
* Metadata display preferences
* End-of-playback behavior (loop, recommendations, continuous playback)

#### Features

Enable or disable advanced functionality:

* **Analytics collection**
* **Trick-play** (playback speed control)
* **Searchable Transcript**
* **Picture-in-Picture**
* **Pop-out / sticky playback**
* **Advertising support**
* **Sharing services**
* **Embed code generation**

Additional feature groups include:

* **Playlist / Podcast settings** (shuffle, media library, max items)
* **Live settings** (comments, reactions, timeshift behavior)
* **Enhanced functionality** (special feature extensions)

#### Security

{% hint style="info" %}
We recommend protecting your player to ensure that only authorized users can access your content. For more information on integrating the player with token protection, please refer to our [player documentation](https://player.docs.3q.video/player-web-sdk/basic-usage#player-protection).
{% endhint %}

Protect your content with:

* **Token protection**
* **Domain restrictions**
* **AES encryption**
* **Playback preview limits**
* **Remote playback controls**

***

### Visual & playback enhancements

#### Badges

Badges are overlays permanently displayed on the player:

* Upload a badge image
* Choose **position**
* Add titles or links
* Commonly used for branding or labels

#### Bumpers

Bumpers allow intro/outro media:

* **Intro bumper** (before main content)
* **Outro bumper** (after playback)
* Supports video or audio files
* Optional UI hiding and skip behavior