Video.js Blog: Archive

Video.js 4.0 now available!

Today we’re releasing Video.js 4.0, which is the most solid, lightweight, and I dare say prettiest version yet. It’s available for download, on Github, and hosted for free on our CDN. Version 4.0 received the most community collaboration of any previous version, which speaks to the growing strength of the JavaScript community, the growing popularity of HTML5 video, and an increase in...

May 9th

Repo Moved!

In preparation for the next version we’ve moved the source code repository from github.com/zencoder/video-js to github.com/videojs/video.js If you have a local clone you can update your clone’s upstream URL with: git remote set-url upstream git://github.com/videojs/video.js.git The relationship between your fork (e.g. github.com/you/video-js) should still be intact, including any...

May 6th

Site and Support Updates

After a brief hiatus of helping Brightcove and Zencoder come together, I’m moving full time to developing and supporting Video.js. Thank you to everyone who has continued to commit code and help out in the forums. As part of this move I’m trying to optimize the tools used for video.js project management and support. The first big change is that the forums are being replaced with...

Nov 15th

1 tag

Brightcove Acquires Zencoder

Today, Zencoder announced that it is being acquired by Brightcove, the leading online video platform (OVP). You can read more on the specifics in the Zencoder blog post and press release, but I also wanted to be clear on what this means for Video.js. As you may know, Video.js was created by me (Steve Heffernan, Co-founder of Zencoder) and Zencoder continues to be its core contributor and sponsor...

Jul 26th

1 tag

Version 3.2 Update

First of all, check out the new video tag builder. The previous version of this site had an embed code builder, and people were pretty disappointed that the new site didn’t. So I’m happy to announce that it’s available again, now as an HTML5 video tag builder that could probably be used outside of Video.js, it includes track tags, and even lets you test the settings. Let me know...

Mar 23rd

1 tag

Version 3.1 Update

This is the first release since the initial 3.0 launch, aside from some hotfixes that went out immediately. It includes a number of fixes for things that users in the forums found right off the bat. One feature that’s optional for testing in this release is iFrame Mode for Flash. One the of the unique things about Video.js is we haven’t built any controls into our Flash player, and...

Jan 30th

1 tag

Video.js Version 3.0!

After months and months of work we’re happy to announce Video.js version 3.0. Some of the exiting new features include: Same HTML/CSS Skin for both HTML5 and Flash video Super lightweight Flash fallback player for browsers that don’t support HTML5 video Free CDN hosting by Level3 A lot more releases and developments are on their way! Cheers, -Heff

Jan 10th

2 tags

Lynda.com HTML5 Video Tutorial Released

I recently filmed a series of HTML5 video tutorials for Lynda.com, a really great service for online training. It was a great experience, and the videos are now available for viewing. You can get a 7-day free trial here and check them out. Let me know if they’re helpful at all. -Heff

Jun 17th

How are you using video.js?

I’d love to hear where and how people are using video.js. If you’re using it somewhere, leave a note/link in the comments. Cheers, -Heff

Jun 7th

1 tag

New MPEG LA WebM/VP8 Patent Pool

One of the things that browser and device vendors stand behind when deciding to support MP4/h.264 over Google’s Webm video format and VP8 codec, is that while VP8 is open source, it may still be encumbered by patents. So far none of these submarine patents have surfaced, but now MPEG LA has put out a call, and hopes to form a patent pool that would create a license for VP8, and essentially...

Feb 11th

2 tags

Apple adds AirPlay to Mobile Safari

AirPlay is a video feature on iOS devices that lets you play video from your device on your TV, by streaming it to an Apple TV on the same wireless network. Before now this was only available in the iPod and YouTube apps, but with iOS 4.3 (now in beta) it will be available through Mobile Safari as well. In order to allow AirPlay as an option, video publishers have to add an attribute to the...

Jan 28th

2 tags

Google is dropping h.264 from Chrome

UPDATE: Added a chart that shows what format support will look like without Chrome supporting h.264. Google has decided to support the open source community by dropping h.264 support from Chrome. Previously Chrome was the only browser that could play all 3 major HTML5 formats—MP4/h.264, WebM/VP8, and Ogg/Theora. This is probably a strategic move at the same time, since h.264 seems unlikely to...

Jan 11th

1 tag

Over 50% of web users now support HTML5 Video

As we roll into 2011, HTML5 video hits a major milestone. 50.5% of web users now support HTML5 video playback. This number was gathered by comparing browser versions that support HTML5 video with StatCounter’s world-wide browser version statistics. This is a 66% growth in HTML5 video user support since December of 2009. With the expected release of Internet Explorer 9 in the near future,...

Jan 7th

1 tag

HTML5 Video + Google Maps Mashup

Mozilla has a cool demo of playing a video while drawing a line on a Google map similar to what you’d see in an Indiana Jones film. Check out the original post and the demo.

Dec 16th

1 tag

2.0.2 Release - Subtitle Optimization + Safari on...

Smallish update with some fixes and optimizations. Rewrote the subtitles parser so it’s a lot more optimized and fixes a subtitle display bug. Put in a check for Safari running on Mac OSX 10.5 (Leopard), which doesn’t like native fullscreen for some reason. Triggering full window mode instead. Full List Feature: Rewrote and optimized subtitle code. Feature: Protecting against volume...

Dec 10th

1 tag

2.0.0 Release - Behaviors, fallback APIs, and...

Big update. The biggest change for current users is a move back to using DIVs for control bar elements instead of unordered lists. There were a lot of conflicting styles issues when using lists, which shouldn’t be an issue with divs. So if you upgrade, don’t forget to upgrade your stylesheets as well. Beyond that, a lot of code was reorganized and modularized to create a platform for...

Nov 22nd

1 tag

Make sites serve you HTML5 video in Safari

John Gruber of Daring Fireball has a cool post on tricking websites to display HTML5 video when they say they can only play Flash. Many sites will tell you they require Flash, even when they actually support HTML5 video for iOS devices. To add to Gruber’s post, there’s two reasons a site might do this: They’re trying to protect their content from being easily downloaded, which...

Nov 19th

1 tag

1.1.5 Release - Subtitles using track, Android fix...

Feature: Switched to track method for setting subtitles. Now works like spec. Feature: Created “players” concept for defining fallbacks and fallback order Fix: Android playback bug. Fix: Massive reorganization of code to make easier to navigate I’ve switched the subtitles to use the new track element defined in the HTML5 spec. You can now add subtitles by creating a track...

Nov 9th

1 tag

Version 1.1.4 Release - CSS Loading Spinner & More

The most notable update in this version is a loading indicator (spinner), for when the video is buffering or seeking. The spinner works pretty well, however it’s limited by how accurately each browser tells us what it’s currently doing through triggered events. The spinner works best in Firefox so far. Safari/Chrome are less consistent with what events are triggered and when. For this...

Nov 6th

1 tag

Version 1.1.3 Release

Version 1.1.3 of VideoJS is now available. Probably the most notable change is a switch to using a big play button before the movie plays for the first time, as opposed to showing the control bar. The main reason for doing this is actually a bug in Safari. If you try to call any functions on the video other than play, before the video has loaded, Safari will error out. Some people mentioned that...

Oct 19th

1 tag

Facebook Adds HTML5 Video

Among other new HTML5 features, Facebook has an HTML5 video player for playback on the iPhone and iPad. They say that on other mobile browsers, Flash outperformed the HTML5 implementation. That’s a little discouraging to hear, but HTML5 video is still young. Read the full post In contrast, check out this video of HTML5 vs. Flash on a Mac. Spoiler: HTML5 wins.

Oct 12th

1 tag

iPad & iPhone Video Poster Fix (bonus Javascript...

Bug #1 - Poster Attribute If you include the poster attribute on the video tag when you’re using <source> tags, the video won’t work on iPads & iPhones using iOS 3. You’ll see a broken play button, or no play button at all. On the iPad specifically, playback in inconsistent. Sometimes it’ll work and sometimes it won’t. This is documented on the Video for...

Sep 20th

VideoJS is IE9 Compatible

After an initial test, VideoJS works with the new Internet Explorer 9 preview. Great news, and a little surprising considering the CSS layout of the controls, and the general nature of IE. Other VideoJS site layout stuff seems to break, but for now as long as the player works I’m happy. If you find differently let me know (along with any info that might be helpful).

Sep 15th

New VideoJS Site (Now with more HTML5)!

I told myself when the site reached 100,000 visits I would redesign it. Well that number’s come and gone, so here it is. I also took this as an opportunity to code an HTML5 based site, using tags like header, footer, and section. And I built it on the newly popular HTML5 Boilerplate. Actually I built a WordPress them for HTML5 Boilerplatefirst, in case you’re interested in doing the...

Sep 15th