Proposals/Done/HTML5 media player
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< Proposals | Done(Redirected from Developer Area/Specifications in Development/Done/HTML5 media player)
Introduction
This feature will replace the current flash player in Mahara by an open source HTML5 media player.
A comparison of HTML5 players
Criteria to choose
- Open source - is it a GPLv3 or compatible?
- Easy to use - is it easy to use it, does it have an intuitive interface to control?
- Accessibility - does it support keyboard control, subtitles, multiple language?
- Multiple mobile platforms support - does player also work on iOS and Android?
- Consistency among browsers, platforms - does player look the same in different browsers, handheld devices?
- Theme/skin - does it support theme/skin?
- Audio ready - can it play audio files?
- Multiple media support - can it play different media file types?
- Flash fallback - does it also work with old flash media?
- Documentation - can we easily integrate it into mahara?
- Plugins/extension support - can we use or develop community plugins easily?
- Streaming media support - can player handle RTMP, Apple HLS, Adobe HDS, Microsoft HSS? (bonus)
- Helpful community - how easily can we get help from its community? (bonus)
- Performance - size, load time, ...(bonus)
- Can the player display subtitles / transcripts (bonus)
HTML5 player options
Here is a list of HTML5 player options which support fully or partially the above features. We give 5 points for a full supported feature and 1 for non-supported. For bonus feature we only give 1 point if supported.
| Player | Open source | Easy to use | Accessibility | Mobile | Consistency | Theme/skin | Audio | Multiple media | Flash fallback | Documentation | Plugins | Streaming | Community | Performance | Total | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native HTML5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 38 | ||
| Flowplayer HTML5 | GPL v3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 43 | Flowplayer logo |
| Video.JS | Apache 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 50 | No extra JS library |
| Projekktor | GPL v3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 52 | Issues on iOS and Android |
| MediaElement.js | MIT | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 54 | Flash fall-forward |
| OSM player | MIT | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 44 | Issues on iOS |
| LeanBack player | GPL v3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 47 | non-commercial usage |
| Kaltura player toolkit | AGPL v3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 56 |
Useful links
- http://html5video.org/wiki/Player_Comparison - HTML5video.org comparison of players
- https://docs.moodle.org/dev/HTML5_player - HTML5 player in Moodle dev wiki.
- http://site.kaltura.com/rs/kaltura/images/Kaltura_Whitepaper_How_to_Select_the_Best_Video - How to Select the Best Video Player
Decision
We decided to implemnt VideoJS because it is the most accessible option out-of-the-box without the user needing to change settings and provides all the functionality we require.