Introducing the JW Player for HTML5
Today, we're pleased to announce the beta release of the JW Player for HTML5. The JW Player for HTML5 leverages new technology within modern web browsers to playback video without the need for plugins or addons. This has the potential to improve both user experience and performance, especially as browsers begin to take advantage of the hardware-based video decoding available on most devices.
That having been said, no browser on the market today has the extensive playback capability of the JW Player for Flash. For that reason, we've built in a seamless fallback for those viewers who can't take advantage of these improvements.
Although we've labeled the player as beta, you'll still find a fully functional player jam-packed with features, including:
- Full support for all browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, iPad, and iPhone
- Playback capabilities for H.264, Theora, and FLV
- Support for all JW Player PNG Skins and
- An extensive API for those who want to add in additional functionality
You can download the JW Player for HTML5 here.
The JW Player for HTML5 is the newest in our long line of players and demonstrates our continued commitment to supporting the most innovative technologies. Should you have any issues, please don't hesitate to contact us via our support forum.
Comments
I think it's great to see you guys getting an HTML5 player. However, since the player doesn't yet support full-screen video, is there perhaps a way to make it so that instead of defaulting to HTML5 and falling back to Flash, it instead defaults to Flash and falls back to HTML5 when there is no Flash? This way users with Flash could still have full-screen functionality, but those without flash (i.e. iPhone/iPad) could still have video playback.
Submitted by Douglas Bell on Fri, 2010-05-28 01:44.
Yes, we will indeed work on such a functionality. We have two approaches:
1. The 1.0 version of our HTML5 player will come with resizing / full-browser-screen support.
2. We will release our own embedding library (a SWFObject - like script) that allows publishers to set their own fallback chain (e.g. Flash ยป HTML5).
Submitted by JeroenW on Fri, 2010-05-28 06:46.
Unlike @Douglas Bell, I can care less about full screen, as I am not on the movie presenting industry (and, like me, the 99% of the Internet). I pretty much prefer the default HTML5, fall back to Flash approach as well.
I totally love that way you are going Jeroen. Keep it up!
Submitted by David Collantes on Sat, 2010-06-05 08:14.
This player seems to be very close to what my company is looking for, but I have some questions.
If our already existing video contains interactive material, would JW support that so that the interactivity on the video can be maintained?
Would we be able to export our videos without downloading Flash at all?
Thanks Jeroen.
Submitted by Sarah Glover on Tue, 2010-06-08 16:46.
yes Im interested in the same question as Sarah,
can we create interactivity with the screen, like flash youtube videos.
Submitted by mark on Tue, 2010-06-08 19:13.
If the original video itself contains interactivity, it is probably an SWF file. Unfortunately, those can only be read using Flash.
In terms of interactivity in the player (such as Youtube comments), we will indeed add such features (as plugins) to the HTML5 player, just like we have those plugins available for our Flash player.
Submitted by JeroenW on Wed, 2010-06-09 04:52.
Are the plugins for the HTML5 player available yet?
Submitted by Sarah on Wed, 2010-06-09 18:34.
I have a 720x480 MP4 (for desktop viewing) and a 496x368 MP4 for iPhone viewing. How would I go about automatically serving the smaller file to iPhones and the larger one to everything else?
Submitted by Jedidiah Hurt on Wed, 2010-06-09 21:07.
@ Sarah:
From our HTML5 FAQ:
@ Jedidiah:
There's currently no way to do this. In the future, this will be possible using plugins.
Submitted by Zach on Thu, 2010-06-10 13:24.
Is there a way to stream videos using the html5 player?
Submitted by Joseph on Thu, 2010-06-17 14:57.
I'm really looking fwd for the full screen support, i have turned to find other players but i still rather use JW when feature update 1.0 is ready
Submitted by izzy on Fri, 2010-06-25 18:25.
Will version 1.0 of the HTML5 player support closed captions? If not, when will this capability be added? This is very important for my industry (educational publishing) because captions are required by law.
Submitted by Robert on Tue, 2010-07-13 11:37.
I feel the fullscreen function is important as well as captions. Furthermore, for my industry content protection is key. Currently we use Adobe FMS and RMTPE but this is flash based and as I understand it there is no DRM in HTML video.
Any advice appreciated!
Submitted by TD on Tue, 2010-07-13 14:25.
For some reason the JW Player HTML5 doesn't play the video on the iPhone, even though it's HTML5. I haven't tested the iPad, but I'd assume the same result. Any way to fix that?
Submitted by Ben on Fri, 2010-07-23 11:23.
I am having such a hard time getting this right on my graphpaperpress multimedia wordpress blog.
There is no comprehensive HTML 5 step by step guide that just says step by step. copy this code to your header.PHP file AND this is where you put the scripts, {includes folder?} where do the helper files go? There are so many moving parts to it but I have yet to see or read a tutorial that takes you from nowhere to right here.
Please help. I must be one of MILLIONS of people who now need to make my stupid iPad auxiliary site work for the iTampon.
bitterly yours,
C
Submitted by dotcomnot on Thu, 2010-08-05 19:31.
@Joseph: HTML5 effectively supports HTTP streaming, but there's no way to do streaming in the way that RTMP does it. All browsers with HTML5 video support seeking beyond what's buffered via HTTP byte-offset requests. The only disadvantage over traditional streaming is that you may transfer more data than is actually necessary, since the buffer isn't capped.
@Izzy: Fullscreen support will be available once the browsers implement it, but it's currently a bit out of our hands. We'll do our best to get simulated fullscreen (taking over the window) into this release.
@Robert: It won't support closed captions out-of-the-box, but I'd expect some plugins to be written to handle this. Also, HTML5 browsers will be adding it soon, and we'll definitely support that.
@TD: There is no DRM for HTML5, and the spec writers have indicated that it won't have any provisions for that. If DRM is important, you'll need to keep using Flash / Silverlight.
@Ben: This is a result of the iOS / Safari updates that took place after the HTML5 beta was released. We will definitely be supporting those in the 1.0 release.
@DOTCOMNOT: We're sorry to hear that you're having a tough time. Given that you're using Wordpress, I'd suggest you take a look at our Wordpress plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/jw-player-plugin-for-wordpress/). It's adding HTML5 video support for iDevices very shortly. Additionally, we've got some great docs for the HTML5 player, including an embedding tutorial (http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/jw-player/jw-player-for-html5/11890/embedding-the-player) that will tell you exactly what files need to go where.
Submitted by Zach on Tue, 2010-08-17 11:48.
Is there any place to get updates on the release date for v1 of the player? It is supposed to fix a specific issue I am having, and the only information I can find says 'This Summer' which is almost out of date! Thanks!
Submitted by Ryan on Thu, 2010-09-02 11:46.
Where is the JW Player for HTML 5 (1.0) for Pete's sake?
Submitted by Ryan on Mon, 2010-09-13 11:37.
The HTML5 player has been integrated into the Flash player and now offers an API across both platforms. See http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/blog/14331/jw-player-53-beta-integrates-html5-support for more details.
Submitted by Zach on Thu, 2010-09-23 23:24.
This is great, but when viewing on an iPhone, the video preview is too wide for the device. Using the latest player and JW Plugin for WordPress. I want to have a 600 pixel wide video on the regular site (i.e. when viewed via desktop) and a smaller video when viewed on an iPhone. Your previous player (5.2) and the plugin used to work this way by using a <video> tag when rendered on the iPhone. This behavior has now changed.
SO how do I make this work in the current iteration?
Submitted by Daryl Lozupone on Fri, 2010-12-17 18:10.
@Daryl Lozupone - Email us a link so we can take a look, thanks.
Submitted by Ethan LongTail on Fri, 2010-12-17 18:46.
with plugin jw wordpress ,youtube video doesn't apper on iphone, not found any doc of this issue..litle desesperate!
Submitted by guillaume on Sat, 2011-10-22 13:08.
Contact us with a link please - http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/contact-us
Submitted by Ethan LongTail on Sun, 2011-10-23 22:41.
Post new comment