Check a video before you publish it

Check the finished file before you publish: ratio, safe-area, captions, AI label, SKU spelling. The generate is not the check. A prompt that mentioned the product name does not prove the label is readable in frame.

The Versely task for this pass is Check a video before you publish it: analyze_video for frames, beats, and on-screen text; review_generation when you are grading a generate against its original prompt. This page is the human procedure those tools sit under. It is not a reason to run a paid review on every draft.

Ratio and safe-area

Ratio. If the destinations are TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, or Shorts, the master should already be 9:16. Pick 9:16 before you generate. A 16:9 recrop is a new crop, not a vertical shot. Facebook Reels is not a second master — same file. Pinterest is not Reels chrome: still pins want 2:3; video type needs a recrop of captions even when the picture can be reused. If the queued file is 1920×1080 for a Reel, stop. Do not “fix it in the scheduler.”

Safe-area. Platform UI covers the frame. It does not crop it. Safe-area moves with OS version, caption length, localised usernames, shop tabs, and extra badges (live, AI overlay on YouTube Shorts since May 2026). A 2024 TikTok diagram is a snapshot. Watch the file in the current app preview, or in a mock that matches it. Confirm:

Hook text is not under the username
Captions are not under the caption strip or engagement column
End card and URL are not under a shop tab
Disclosure line, if required, is visible at first exposure — first frame, not a description field

Pinterest Idea Pin chrome is not TikTok’s caption zone. Recrop type when the destination changes. Cross-posting without that nudge is how a correct Reel becomes an unreadable Pin.

If you use a scheduler, remember ImgKey’s mid-2026 note: Graph API and cross-post paths can disagree with direct uploads, including for C2PA. The QC pass is on the file you will send, not on a timeline preview the scheduler will resize. If the tool transcodes on ingest, you are checking a different file than the one that goes live. Export once, inspect that export, then queue those bytes.

Captions and SKU spelling

Mute autoplay is the default. If the claim is only in the audio, most first views never hear it. Captions for silent autoplay is the finish rule. This check is whether the finish actually landed.

On-screen text to read, out loud, from the file:

Every caption cue: spelling, punctuation, the actual product name
Price, offer, legal line
End card
Pack label in the picture — the SKU as rendered, not as prompted

SKU spelling is its own failure mode. Models invent cousin labels. Upscales break type that was already correct. A 47-credit Seedance 2.5 take (4–30s, 720p, native audio) can still letter the flavour line wrong. review_generation will tell you whether the output matches the prompt; it will not tell you whether the prompt’s SKU matches the legal pack. Have the pack in another window. Pause on the frame where the label is largest.

Burned-in captions are the object. A sidecar SRT the player may never draw is not a pass. Caption timing should track speech; a cue that arrives a beat late on a silent phone is a missed hook. Two lines, not a paragraph. Re-place after any recrop.

The AI caption generator and add captions are the repair doors. The check does not repair. It tells you to go back.

Do not auto-run review_generation on every clip. The tool’s own guidance is to offer it after long jobs or when something looks off, because each pass costs credits and latency. Save it for files about to go live or into spend.

AI label before the upload

Decide the disclosure on the locked file, not in the composer panic.

Organic Meta. Self-disclose AI info / Made with AI when the media is generated or meaningfully altered. C2PA may help ingest; schedulers may drop it. Instagram’s AI-generated profile badge (31 August 2026, TechCrunch) is account identity for an AI person — not this file check, unless you are about to publish as a persona with the toggle still off.

Ads. Ads Manager auto-applies AI info for Background Generation, Image Generation, and Add Animation (Coinis, 16 July 2026). Third-party detection from 1 June 2026. Do not strip the export to dodge it.

TikTok. Use the built-in AI label when the content is AI. Creativity Program eligibility still wants that label; the label itself is not the ranking penalty.

X. ImgKey mid-2026: C2PA will not travel. Put the words in the frame and in the post.

LinkedIn. Credentials may display. Photoreal B2B still needs a line a person can read without tapping CR.

Article 50 (2 August 2026): perceivable deployer label at first exposure for authentic-looking synthetic people, places, or events in the EU. Platform toggles are not automatically that label. The disclosure template is the copy. Burn it if mute autoplay is the view.

SynthID on Google-family output stays if you hid Flow’s visible mark on 14 August 2026. Do not treat an empty corner as unmarked. The check is: would a person know, at frame one.

Run the check on the finished file

Order:

Picture lock (no more generates unless the check fails the picture).
Caption burn and overlay lock.
Watch all the way through, sound off, on a phone-sized frame.
Optional: analyze_video for on-screen text and beats; review_generation if this is a generate and you need a structured verdict (ok / minor / broken).
Confirm destination list: same 9:16 for IG/FB Reels; recrop type for Pinterest; ads vs organic labels.
Upload on the path you measured for C2PA, or accept that the path strips and you already disclosed in pixels.

The pre-publish task is this pass inside Versely. It is the wrong first step — do not QC a miss you should have re-rolled. It is the right last step. The AI video generator is where the row ran. The check is where you refuse to ship the cousin SKU.

If you want that loop on one bill, sign up and make “watch it back” a gate, not a hope.

FAQ

Is a timeline preview enough?

No. Previews can be a different render (including a 480p preview pass). Inspect the export you will upload. Download-your-own-post after the first live test if C2PA or chrome is in doubt.

Do I run analyze_video on every draft?

No. Credits and latency. Use it on the files that will publish or spend. Shallow passes can miss a single-frame glitch; raise depth when you are hunting one.

What if only the SKU is wrong?

Do not re-generate the whole scene if the motion is right. Fix type with an overlay or a still edit, then re-check that frame. A new model call is how the rest of the picture drifts.