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Has anyone here that is excited about HTML5 video (and Flash being dead) ever written an enterprise video player? It's a total nightmare in HTML5. You have litt

by dplgk 11y ago

Has anyone here that is excited about HTML5 video (and Flash being dead) ever written an enterprise video player? It's a total nightmare in HTML5. You have little control over playback and insight into video events. Meeting business requirements (that Flash fulfilled) with HTML5 video ranges from hard to not possible.

michaelbuddy 11y ago
an enterprise video player wasn't exactly a picnic on Flash. How do I know? Because even the "enterprise" players would crash browsers constantly.
tensafefrogs 11y ago
I'd recommend one of the open source players, like video.js[1]. Unless you are doing some really advanced things it should cover your needs. [1] http://videojs.com/ http://videojs.com/
- jack9 11y ago
  It's terribly primitive and altogether broken from some features (unfinished). Just an fyi
heynk 11y ago
Can you elaborate on this? At work we have a HTML video player that works with files, YouTube, and Vimeo all with the same skin, and we're easily able to do things like save state across sessions. I will say that the transcoding aspect can be complicated. What limitations have you hit?
- dplgk 11y ago
  Listening for video events (cross-browser) reliably. When is a video loading, buffering, paused, what time is it? etc
thiagopnts 11y ago
there is also http://clappr.io http://clappr.io
- pdxandi 11y ago
  I find that landing page truly frustrating. I can't do anything besides watch the background video and "Star" them on Github.
  - isaacremuant 11y ago
    I don't know if it was because I'm not signed in to github but by clicking star I ended up in their repo. Still, while it's laudable that you might have just one clear button a la google so there's focus, this can be somewhat confusing.
cabbeer 11y ago
This might help https://mozillalabs.com/en-US/Popcorn/ https://mozillalabs.com/en-US/Popcorn/
- mmcclure 11y ago
  FWIW, I'm pretty sure Popcorn has been abandoned, which is a shame.
cballard 11y ago
> You have little control over playback This sounds user-friendly. > insight into video events If "insight" means "tracking", this sounds very user-friendly.
- jessedhillon 11y ago
  > If "insight" means "tracking", this sounds very user-friendly. I personally would like advertisers and content producers to know at which point it is that users tend to bail on watching their video, or will click through to the content. That might allow business users to receive useful feedback and actually optimize their funnel, instead of wasting my time with a shotgun, best guess approach.
  - whitegrape 11y ago
    It would be interesting to see Youtube's statistics on this, because for almost every case personally on my mobile devices and every case I've seen others deal with, that bail-out point is "as soon as possible" if the ad can be skipped.
    - douche 11y ago
      It wouldn't be so bad, if they would show you more than one or two different ads. I remember Hulu being especially egregious about that. I'd watch a couple hours of the back catalog of some show, and see maybe 20-30 ads in their "commercial breaks", except it was always the same ad.
- seangrant 11y ago
  Obviously user friendly but businesses don't care when they can't get their metrics.
- Someone1234 11y ago
  > If "insight" means "tracking", this sounds very user-friendly. What about a slideshow which has a video of the speaker, and changes the slides for particular timestamps. At the moment you'll have to detect the playback event and just hope that the video is playing back at the "correct" speed, and change the slides based on a JavaScript clock. While that works most of the time, it isn't what I'd describe as reliable. Alternatives exist, like making the slides part of the video too, but now text cannot be copied out, links cannot be clicked, and so on...
dave2000 11y ago
Is there any technical or legal reason why it's not as easy to handle playing video as it is to show an image, from a site developer point of view? Why can't the browser do it natively? Why does it have to be handled via JavaScript and whatever else?
- eldod 11y ago
  Today playing a video more complex than just decode a .mp4 file: most broadcasters use Adaptive Bitrate streaming formats like HLS and MPEG-DASH, that add a lot of complexity: How do you get the qualities and languages list? how and when do you switch the video quality? etc In case of hls.js used by the NYT, you actually need to transmux the mpeg-ts content used in HLS into fMP4 to make it playable by the Media Source Extensions API used by the browsers.
  - teen 11y ago
    yea, the transmuxing is unfortunately buggy though. i had to recently switch my site back to flash because so many browsers have issues with it. it loads way faster though
    - eldod 11y ago
      HLS.js is doing great on Chrome, FF, Edge and Opera. For Safari it's better to use the native HLS player for now. The best option is to have HLS.js first on compatible latest browsers and Flashls as a fallback on older ones
eldod 11y ago
When did you try doing it? Things evolved a lot in the last 3 years in terms of video streaming support in HTML5, and today everything that was doable in Flash is doable in HTML5 with MSN and EME. You have control over the playback almost up to the keyframe today. Do you have any specific features in mind?

by dplgk 11y ago

michaelbuddy 11y ago

an enterprise video player wasn't exactly a picnic on Flash. How do I know? Because even the "enterprise" players would crash browsers constantly.

tensafefrogs 11y ago

I'd recommend one of the open source players, like video.js[1]. Unless you are doing some really advanced things it should cover your needs. [1] http://videojs.com/ http://videojs.com/

jack9 11y ago
It's terribly primitive and altogether broken from some features (unfinished). Just an fyi

heynk 11y ago

Can you elaborate on this? At work we have a HTML video player that works with files, YouTube, and Vimeo all with the same skin, and we're easily able to do things like save state across sessions. I will say that the transcoding aspect can be complicated. What limitations have you hit?

dplgk 11y ago
Listening for video events (cross-browser) reliably. When is a video loading, buffering, paused, what time is it? etc

thiagopnts 11y ago

there is also http://clappr.io http://clappr.io

pdxandi 11y ago
I find that landing page truly frustrating. I can't do anything besides watch the background video and "Star" them on Github.
- isaacremuant 11y ago
  I don't know if it was because I'm not signed in to github but by clicking star I ended up in their repo. Still, while it's laudable that you might have just one clear button a la google so there's focus, this can be somewhat confusing.

cabbeer 11y ago

This might help https://mozillalabs.com/en-US/Popcorn/ https://mozillalabs.com/en-US/Popcorn/

mmcclure 11y ago
FWIW, I'm pretty sure Popcorn has been abandoned, which is a shame.

cballard 11y ago

> You have little control over playback This sounds user-friendly. > insight into video events If "insight" means "tracking", this sounds very user-friendly.

jessedhillon 11y ago
> If "insight" means "tracking", this sounds very user-friendly. I personally would like advertisers and content producers to know at which point it is that users tend to bail on watching their video, or will click through to the content. That might allow business users to receive useful feedback and actually optimize their funnel, instead of wasting my time with a shotgun, best guess approach.
- whitegrape 11y ago
  It would be interesting to see Youtube's statistics on this, because for almost every case personally on my mobile devices and every case I've seen others deal with, that bail-out point is "as soon as possible" if the ad can be skipped.
  - douche 11y ago
    It wouldn't be so bad, if they would show you more than one or two different ads. I remember Hulu being especially egregious about that. I'd watch a couple hours of the back catalog of some show, and see maybe 20-30 ads in their "commercial breaks", except it was always the same ad.
seangrant 11y ago
Obviously user friendly but businesses don't care when they can't get their metrics.
Someone1234 11y ago
> If "insight" means "tracking", this sounds very user-friendly. What about a slideshow which has a video of the speaker, and changes the slides for particular timestamps. At the moment you'll have to detect the playback event and just hope that the video is playing back at the "correct" speed, and change the slides based on a JavaScript clock. While that works most of the time, it isn't what I'd describe as reliable. Alternatives exist, like making the slides part of the video too, but now text cannot be copied out, links cannot be clicked, and so on...

dave2000 11y ago

Is there any technical or legal reason why it's not as easy to handle playing video as it is to show an image, from a site developer point of view? Why can't the browser do it natively? Why does it have to be handled via JavaScript and whatever else?

eldod 11y ago
Today playing a video more complex than just decode a .mp4 file: most broadcasters use Adaptive Bitrate streaming formats like HLS and MPEG-DASH, that add a lot of complexity: How do you get the qualities and languages list? how and when do you switch the video quality? etc In case of hls.js used by the NYT, you actually need to transmux the mpeg-ts content used in HLS into fMP4 to make it playable by the Media Source Extensions API used by the browsers.
- teen 11y ago
  yea, the transmuxing is unfortunately buggy though. i had to recently switch my site back to flash because so many browsers have issues with it. it loads way faster though
  - eldod 11y ago
    HLS.js is doing great on Chrome, FF, Edge and Opera. For Safari it's better to use the native HLS player for now. The best option is to have HLS.js first on compatible latest browsers and Flashls as a fallback on older ones

eldod 11y ago

When did you try doing it? Things evolved a lot in the last 3 years in terms of video streaming support in HTML5, and today everything that was doable in Flash is doable in HTML5 with MSN and EME. You have control over the playback almost up to the keyframe today. Do you have any specific features in mind?