The JW Player supports a range of styling options, playback features, and file formats. In addition, it's highly extensible via APIs to meet a wide range of use cases.
| Media Support | |
|---|---|
| Video files | MP4 (H.264/AAC), FLV (VP6/MP3) *, WebM (VP8/Vorbis) * * Browser dependent |
| Audio files | AAC, MP3, Vorbis * * Browser dependent |
| YouTube | Support for YouTube videos through their Chromeless Player API * * Browser dependent |
| Streaming protocols | Adobe RTMP *, Apple HLS * * Browser dependent |
| Device Support | |
| Desktop browsers | Chrome **, Internet Explorer 8/9, Firefox **, Safari **, Opera ** ** Latest, or most widely used version http://gs.statcounter.com/ |
| Mobile devices | iOS**, Android 2.3, Android 4 ** Latest, or most widely used version http://david-smith.org/iosversionstats/ |
| Rendering modes | Support for Flash + HTML5 on desktops (auto-detected), HTML5 on devices Built-in download fallback adds basic playback to other devices (e.g. Blackberry, Android 2.2) |
| Embedding Options | |
| Content | file, image, title Extensive configuration through "playlists" (see below) |
| Layout | controls, width, height, skin, stretching Minimum dimensions 320x180, or 320x30 ("audio" mode) |
| Behaviour | autostart *, fallback, mute *, primary *, repeat * Not supported on mobile devices |
| Logo | Set file, link, hide, margin and position of custom watermark * * Only supported in Pro/Premium/Ads editions |
| Playlists | |
| Inline playlists | Item properties: title, description, mediaid, image, sources Source properties*: file, type, width, height * Set multiple sources to increase device coverage or render a "quality" selection menu |
| RSS Feeds | Support for RSS and MediaRSS extensions Multiple sources are loaded by setting multiple media:content elements |
| Playlist component | Set to bottom or right of display at configurable size Displays image, title and description for each item |
| Captions | |
| External formats | WebVTT *, SRT, DFXP * (no cue styling support) * No support for cue layout or styling. |
| Embedded formats | TX3G text tracks in MP4 ** ** Supported on desktops in Flash mode and on iOS |
| Playlists | Support for multiple caption tracks (file/label) per playlist item RSS captions support through the "media:subtitle" element |
| Skinning | |
| Format | XML, with PNG images (external or base64) * |
| Components | Controlbar, Display, Tooltip, Dock, Playlist |
| Included skins | Six (default), Five, Bekle*, Glow*, Modieus*, Stormtrooper*, Beelden*, Roundster*, Vapor* * Only included with Premium/Ads editions |
| JavaScript API | |
| API classes | Ready, Playlist, Buffer*, Playback*, Seek*, Volume*, Resize, Quality*, Button, Controls*, Error, Metadata* * Certain limitations on mobile devices |
| Analytics | |
| JW Player Analytics | Tracking plays, viewers, & time watched per day, by device & location, across all embeds* * Free service, available to all JW Player users |
| Google Analytics | Tracking plays and completes per video ** ** Only supported in Premium/Ads editions |
| Streaming | |
| RTMP | Single MP4, FLV, AAC, MP3 or live stream Dynamic streams w/automatic bitrate switching * Options for bufferlength, securetoken (Wowza only), fcsubscribe (certain CDNs) * Requires SMIL manifest and streams of same format / keyframe interval |
| Apple HLS | Playback in desktop browsers (Flash mode) ** and iOS Supports all features of version 5 of the Pantos IETF draft, except AES decryption ** Only supported in Premium/Ads editions |
| Flash pseudo-streaming *** | Supports mod_h264 (apache/iis/nginx), mod_flvx (apache) or HttpFlvModule (nginx) *** Pseudo-streaming in HTML5 mode is always supported |
| Server and CDN support | Official server support for Wowza Media Server and Adobe Media Server Official CDN support for Akamai, Cloudfront, Edgecast and Limelight |
| Discovery | |
| Social Sharing * | Configurable video link / embed code per playlist item Shortcuts for posting video link to Facebook, Twitter, Email |
| Related Videos * | Configurable list of related videos (RSS feed) per playlist item Displayed on complete and/or button click * Only supported in Premium/Ads editions |
| Advertising | |
| VAST/VPAID ** | VAST 2.0 / VPaid 1.0 compliant, supporting linear and non-linear ads with companions ** Please contact us for more information on VAST/VPAID support |
| Google IMA (DFP) *** | Linear pre-, mid- and post-roll videos, non-linear AdSense overlays, HTML companions Configurable ad message for linear ads * Only supported in Ads edition, Flash rendering mode |