Here’s a quick post on how to add audio or video to your Power BI report. In general, media should be used sparingly, and I cannot emphasis that enough. Let your data do the talking. If you are convinced that having media serves your report though, you can use the HTML Viewer custom visual to add audio or video to Power BI reports.
NOTE: Content should play in Power BI Service. While controls display in Desktop, content will not play.
Steps:
- Consider — Do you need audio or video in a report? Does it serve your narrative?
- Reconsider — Do you *really* need audio or video in a report?
- Re-reconsider — Last warning…
- Convinced there’s a good reason? Add the HTML Viewer custom visual from the Store/AppSource to your Power BI Report.
- Add data in HTML format using either the <audio> or <video> tag (sample code below).
- Add the column to the Category field in the HTML Viewer visual. The visual currently does not accept measures.
- Filter the HTML Viewer so that only one record plays at a time (See the Animal See ‘N’ Say sample for how a slicer is used for this purpose. If no value or more than one value is selected, content will not play).
- Save and publish the report to Power BI Service.
Audio Sample Code (HTML5)
Video Sample Code (HTML5)
A few major caveats:
- The audio or video will restart as part of an update to another visual on the page. Keep in mind that if your users are likely to change filters or click on other visuals frequently on the report page, sound will play ad nauseam. I would encourage you to use it sparingly in short, meaningful clips.
- Audio and video files should meet the standard criteria for the HTML5 <audio> or <video> tag. There are some limitations in terms of file type (mp3, ogg), etc.
- Audio and video content should be hosted online with a publicly accessible URL.
- Sound or video will only work in Power BI Service. Controls will display in Power BI Desktop, but no content will load.
A few examples of sound used for past “reports”–none of which have a purpose beyond showcasing audio for the sake of it:
- Animal See ‘n’ Say
- Dancing Cat Generator
- Artillery Game (original version)
Merry Christmas!
UPDATE: There are plenty of other ways to employ the HTML Viewer custom visual. Here are a few:
- https://www.blue-granite.com/blog/using-data-driven-images-for-navigating-power-bi-bookmarks
- https://dataveld.com/2018/01/06/power-bi-text-adventure-with-bookmarks/
- https://dataveld.com/2018/01/13/use-svg-images-in-power-bi-part-1/
Can we use youtube’s embed code in this video tag for html visual, if not any other way to handle youtube link in this visual ?
Youtube embed code is having it in iframe:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXX&w=560&h=315%5D
Did you have any luck?
Hello, has anyone been able to successfully implement in Power BI using htmlViewer? Although embed code works fine in dashboard tile, exact same code does not render in reports (neither on desktop nor in service). Thanks, JC
Thanks for this informative post. Could you please clarify the one part that’s vague to me? Where and how does one “Add data in HTML format using either the or tag (sample code below)”? My assumption was that one would create a new column where the html would be concatenated with the field in which the video url resides, but your sample code screenshots don’t match any facility that I can find in Power BI. Please explain — and provide an example of how that concatenation would look.
Please forgive me for revising a thread after 2.5 years. I have been partially successful in using the technique documented here. Partial in the sense I was able to use the HTML5 custom control to play content from Vimeo from the PBI service from my development machine. Using the same content, the Vimeo feed stuck at the opening loading animation and never played. I have been unable to determine the difference, same browsers (Edge & Chrome), same OS, same account.
As of a few months ago the HTML5 custom control was discontinued by the developer and is no longer available from AppSource.
I am wondering if there are other alternatives. I do note there is a capability to embed video in dashboard tiles on the service, but my usage scenario tracks with David’s, I need to be able to select.