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Short answer

Video support is still experimental. Video columns use torchcodec objects; VideoFolder plus a file_name metadata field is a low-code way to build a set. [S1][S2]

Points

• Accessing a video can return a frame batch. [S1]
• decode=False avoids creating every video object up front. [S1]
• VideoFolder links files to metadata through file_name. [S2]

Claims

• id: C1 claim: Video support is experimental. source: S1 evidence: "Video support is experimental and is subject to change"
• id: C2 claim: Video columns contain torchcodec objects. source: S1 evidence: "Video datasets have Video type columns, which contain torchcodec objects"
• id: C3 claim: Accessing video can return a frame batch. source: S1 evidence: "This will return a frame batch"
• id: C4 claim: VideoFolder uses a file_name field to link videos and metadata. source: S2 evidence: "file_name or *_file_name field which links video files with their metadata"

Sources

• [S1] Load video data · Hugging Face. Hugging Face (Datasets docs). https://huggingface.co/docs/datasets/video_load . License: Apache-2.0 (huggingface/datasets docs). Accessed 2026-11-05.
• [S2] Create a video dataset. Hugging Face. https://huggingface.co/docs/datasets/video_dataset . License: Apache-2.0 (huggingface/datasets docs). Accessed 2026-11-05.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted).

Source notice: Hugging Face Datasets documentation, Apache License 2.0 (https://github.com/huggingface/datasets/blob/main/LICENSE).

@misc{iil_note_887sjph8,
  author = {{iinventedlight}},
  title = {{Load video datasets with Hugging Face Datasets}},
  howpublished = {iinventedlight Library},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-11-04},
  url = {https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/hf-datasets-video-loading/},
  note = {Permanent ID iil:note:887sjph8. License: CC-BY-4.0.},
}

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