Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Plugin Advanced 4.18.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.18.0 2018+ Tizen Support Beta

The future of TV viewership is OTT, and along with our comprehensive app offering, we are re excited to announce beta support for embedding video players in Tizen apps on 2018+ Samsung smart TVs. Tizen is a web-based platform that is already capturing significant market share worldwide. Our beta offering works out of the box on these devices using the same web player library and setup configuration you know and love.

Updates

Added support for Tizen on 2018+ Samsung smart TVs.
Created a Tizen demo app to showcase our initial 2018+ beta support of this platform.
Added a new method, jwplayer().stopCasting(), which can be called to stop a casting session on a Chromecast device.
Added a new method, getPercentViewable, which takes no arguments and returns the visibility attribute from the player s model.
Added support for DRM robustness. To configure the player to use this feature, specify videoRobustness and/or audioRobustness in the playlist item source in the Widevine, Playready and Clearkey object within the DRM block.

Deprecations

Removed support for rendering 360/VR videos across all devices and streaming providers due to underutilization. The player will no longer recognize or render 360 videos as expected, though the videos will still play.

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Plugin Advanced 4.19.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.19.0 Apple Low Latency HLS Support

At last, streaming live video no longer sacrifices latency, or the delay between a moment captured on camera to when it is displayed to viewers.
In 2020, Apple, which developed the HLS format, amended its spec and added support for low latency in Safari across devices, and since then, the JW Player team has worked ceaselessly to bridge support across other browsers through our open-source maintainership of hlsjs.
We are excited to announce full, out of the box support for LL-HLS support in 8.19.0.

Updates

Core Player

Removed support for Flash, which was deprecated by Adobe on December 31, 2020.
Added out of the box support for low latency HLS streams, including partials, automatic playback rate adjustment, hold back, and part hold back. The player automatically detects low latency streams and goes into that mode with no additional configuration required.
Added support for low latency in JW Live Channels streams.
Added support for IMSC1 captions in HLS streams.
Added markup to discourage Google from displaying player error messages in search result snippets.
Removed a default value for liveSyncDuration. The player will no longer add a default of 25 to item sources.
Improved automatic latency defaults by starting HLS live streams with a latency based on the streams TARGET-DURATION or HOLD-BACK, in accordance with the HLS spec. This can still be overridden in browsers other than Safari by configuring liveSyncDuration, which used to default to 25 seconds.
Added duration, currentTime, seekRange, and metadata.currentTime to the seek event response.
Added targetLatency to time events. When playing live streams, the player will adjust playbackRate to meet the latency target.
Improved stream type detection for Yospace streams, which often contain query string parameters after the file extension.
Reduced fatal player errors caused by user agents represented as Safari that are really Chrome.
Added a new configuration option, horizontalVolumeSlider, that when optionally set to true, makes the volume slider appear horizontally, below the scroll bar, instead of above it.

New Features

Added a new configuration option to the advertising block, adTagParameters, an object, which supports custom parameter key value pairs with the DAI ad client.
Added a new configuration option to the advertising block, ppid, which can be used with the Google IMA client to pass a publisher provided id to the IMA SDK.
Added fallback support for Norwegian automated player translation. In addition to no, which is already supported, the player will now recognize html tag lang attributes of nn or nb as Norwegian as well. To customize text, please use the no object inside of the internationalization block regardless of which code is used in the page s lang attribute.

Known Issues

Due to a bug in 8.17.0+ affecting some player bidding customers, we will not update the biannual player release channel on its scheduled February 3 date. Instead, we will update it off schedule, on or before 8.20.0 in March. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Removed files from JW player media directory

- jwplayer.flash.swf
- provider.flash.js
- provider.hlsjs-progressive.js
- jwplayer.vr.js

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Plugin Advanced 4.20.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.19.0 OMID Ads in VAST

Pioneered by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the Open Measurement standard for video on the web is a giant leap forward in reducing the dependency on VPAID ads for viewability measurement.
Open Measurement gives publishers transparency and control to manage the third-party verification scripts rather than running them through the ad creatives themselves, where they cannot be accessed.
Our 8.20.0 release brings out of the box OMID-compliant XML support for this industry-wide specification through our VAST ad client.
Google is expecting to include full OMID support soon, which will be available through our Google IMA client as soon as it s available.

Updates

    Added support for OMID ads in the VAST client. No configuration is required; the player automatically handles verification when the XML is returned.
    To the VAST client, added the adVerifications node to the adImpression event response, which returns the parsed content of that element in an object.
    Added a new configuration option to the advertising object, allowedOmidVendors, which accepts an array and is supported in the VAST client. If not set or set as an empty array, all vendors can run. If set, only the resources from the listed vendors can run. All failures to run verification will be noted accordingly to the ad server.
    Improved stalling when there is significant drift from the edge of live streams.

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Plugin Advanced 4.21.0 :

+ Support and tested with Joomla 4

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.21.2 Picture in Picture

Picture in picture minimizes videos to a corner of the screen, allowing you to multitask in any other app or browser tab.
Picture in Picture, or PiP, as it s often shortened to, works at the operating system level, as compared to our floating player,
which only minimizes to a corner of the current browser tab and is not viewable when backgrounded.
We have added out of the box support across Chrome and Safari on desktop and mobile devices.

New Features

    Added support for playback in Picture in Picture mode across all supported browsers, including ads, captions, and playlists. Firefox and Internet Explorer do not support this feature.
    Configuration: Added a new configuration option, pipIcon, which defaults to enabled and adds a Picture in Picture icon and right click menu options to supported desktop browsers only. Setting this option to disabled will remove this icon, which you can also hide with CSS. On mobile devices, we have elected not to add an icon to our controls, but rather, PiP can be enabled through the operating system s native gestures and user interface on both iOS and Android.
    Added automatic localization support for the Picture in Picture icon tooltip and right click menu option across all supported languages, which can also be customized via the intl block with pipIcon.
    Javascript API: added a new event, adLoadedXML, which fires when the VAST ad client loads an ad tag. The response contains the same object properties as other ad events, such as adBreakId, adPlayId, adPosition, client, tag, etc, as well as an XML parameter that exposes the XML downloaded from the tag.
    Improved recovery of live DASH streams that buffer infinitely by implementing segment timeouts.

# Fix allowedOmidVendors configuration option.
# Fix omidSupport configuration option.

 

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Plugin Advanced 4.22.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.22.2 Summer Updates

We continue to iterate on the web player based on your feedback.
We are making some small scale updates and fixes for the summer in 8.22 while we gear up for bigger releases, like a planned expansion of the parameters we support in our Google AMP component.

Updates

    Updated our Shaka dependency to 3.2
    Added 15+ new 246xxx error codes related to DASH DRM failures.
    In the VAST client, we now define the creative type as video when making ad requests with OMID-enabled players, which should improve measurement accuracy.
    Improved settings menu ARIA labeling for accessibility by removing the ariahaspopup attribute and changing the role attribute on many elements to better suit the screen reader experience.
    Improved accessibility of the seek slider by adding the aria-valuenow attribute and ensuring the current time is read aloud by screen readers for both VOD and live streams.
    
    Updated the About This Video modal (accessible via the right click menu) to include stats for nerds, including information about the stream including media ID, buffer health, resolution, and more.
    Configuration: Added a new configuration option, allowFullscreen, which defaults to true. When set to false, fullscreen functionality is completely disabled in the player including tapping, clicking, keyboard shortcuts, and API access.
    Javascript events: Added a new method, setAllowFullscreen, which through updating the boolean, disables or re-enables the above fullscreen behavior.
    Updated the Freewheel Ad Manager SDK dependency to v6.43.
    Improved player and page security by whitelisting allowed HTML markup elements that may render in media title and description fields; links, scripts, and Javascript functions are no longer rendered.

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Plugin Advanced 4.23.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.23.1 AMP Component Customization

AMP Component Customization

We have been thrilled by your positive feedback about and increased usage of our JW Player AMP component since we last released major updates to it in player version 8.15.0 in June 2020, when we added support for common video attributes and compatibility with other AMP components.
Developers have historically been limited by what they could customize within the AMP framework since it restricts third-party vendors and scripts to loading inside of iframes. This release helps developers achieve parity with on-page Javascript embeds by adding support for new attributes in AMP that enable extensive customization. Whether you want to append ad tags with page metadata, customize the player controls with CSS, or inject a full setup configuration using JSON, our AMP component now comes with out of the box support to create the player you need. We also added compatibility with the amp-consent component.
To learn more, check out our documentation on amp.dev

AMP Component Updates

Updated our amp-jwplayer documentation on amp.dev including all the attributes mentioned in the release notes.
To the amp-jwplayer component, added support for a new attribute, data-config-json, which accepts a full JSON configuration using any key values listed in the web player configuration reference, with the exception of media, which should use the media ID or playlist ID attribute, and the floating player, which should use the amp-video-docking component and the dock attribute on the player element.
Added support for appending the iframe source url before player setup, to support token signing for example, with new attributes data-player-param-* and data-player-querystring.
Added an attribute, data-ad-cust-params, which supports a JSON string of custom parameters that will be appended to the end of an ad tag on ad request.
Added an attribute, data-config-skin-url, which accepts a url to an externally-hosted CSS file that will be loaded inside of the iframe, and can be used to target JW Player elements. You can also load this file as skin.url in your JSON setup configuration using data-config-json. See our documentation on how to create your own CSS file.
Added an attribute, data-config-plugin-url, which accepts a url to an externally-hosted Javascript file that will be loaded inside of the iframe, and can be used to apply custom Javascript to the player.
Added support for populating ad tag macros in AMP with a new attribute, data-ad-macro-*. The following macros are supported:
An attribute used to override the default value of macros in ad tags. Supported macros include: domain, referrer,page-url, item-{custparam}, and item-{custparam}-list. For example, setting data-ad-macro-domain=jwplayer.com would ensure the requested ad tag populates the domain parameter with the defined page url. See our ad tag macro documentation for more information.
In AMP, added support for the amp-consent component, which a way for publishers to collect and store user s consent through a UI and is a way to block AMP components based on the user’s consent. Added a new attribute, data-block-on-consent, which if set blocks the player from loading until the consent state is resolved. The consent data will then be passed to the player's iframe as query parameters for use with advertising implementations. See the amp-consent blocking behaviors documentation for possible values that this attribute accepts.
Fixed an issue in amp-jwplayer where play events erroneously fired when an ad played.
Remove existing logic which was manually sending additional pause events during ads with AMP, which are no longer needed.

General Improvements

Added the aria-expanded attribute to the settings menu button to improve accessibility.
When hovering over the timeline where there are chapter markers, the chapter s name and the current time will always be shown.
For accessibility, added aria-expanded attributes to the buttons in the captions styling submenu.
Improved the experience for mp4 videos under 90 seconds that are single items so that when set to repeat, the looping is seamless.

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Plugin Advanced 4.24.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.24.0 Winter Updates

Small enhancements and fixes. 8.24.0 is our final release of 2021. Wishing you a happy year end and see you in 2022!

Updates

    Added support for Google Search's video key moments seekToAction markup. Players with generateSEOMetadata set to true will now have the required fields to enable Google to not only index videos, but also generate chapter markers with AI and surface those in enhanced search results. JW Player is working in partnership with Google to improve organic search traffic for all of our publishers.
    Added support to automatically seek to and start a video on a specific time with the jw_start url query parameter. The parameter takes a number, in seconds. For example www.jwplayer.com/?jw_start=20 will start the 1 minute 3 second video on our home page at the 20 second mark.
    Updated the HLS.js dependency to v1.0.12.
    Extended playlist.onXhrOpen configuration to support DASH streams.
    Improved image size decisioning for JW Platform streams. When the player loads an image, whether it's a poster image or thumbnail, it now uses the closest available image size rather than one fixed size across the board. This will improve data transfer as well as user experience.

Fixes

    Fixed an issue with the Freewheel ad client where custom key value pairs weren't being sent in the ad request as expected.
    Fixed an issue where the embed url defined in the SEO video object was invalid for JW Platform streams.
    Fixed a bug causing the HTML page URL to be requested multiple times when casting.
    Fixed a bug occurring during live streams where the About This Video modal cannot be closed and a console error is thrown.
    Fixed an issue where embedded TTML captions in MPEG-DASH live streams were not displaying as expected.
    Fixed an issue where some DASH audio tracks were labeled with only a two-letter ISO code instead of the full English name.

- Removed kraken.js, kraken-dnt.js, googimanvmp.js.

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Plugin Advanced 4.25.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.25.1 Spring Updates

+ General Improvements

We have disabled the poster image for videos that autoplay to help reduce load.
We have improved our handling of of text tracks on Dash streams. All text tracks will be selectable now even if they are duplicates.

^ Updates

Updated our Shaka dependency to v3.3.2
Updated our HLS.js dependency to v1.1.5

# Fixes

Fixed an issue with the recommendation shelf.
Fixed an issue with display cues when switching between text tracks that are the same language.
Fixed an issue that caused Ad blockers preventing player events from firing.
Fixed an issue with some DASH streams not playing on Safari 15.0 and higher
Fixed an issue where ad markers where not appearing with the googima client
Fixed an issue with the mute button not working correctly while casting.

- Removed provider.hlsjs-alt.js.

Upgrade !!

Changelog JW Player Plugin Advanced 4.26.0 :

^ Upgrade to JW Player 8.26.2

+ General Improvements

    Enables Google SEO Optimization with generateSEOMetadata button
    We have revamped our old Chapter UI to a more modern look.
    Added better error handling for Buffer Append errors in HLS.
    Added support for our player plugin code to recognize URL query string parameters/variables.
    We now expose more metadata from ID3 tags
    We have updated and refined our UX for the floating player to comply better with Google s policy.
    Added support for CMAF DRM streams.
    
^ Updates

    Updated our Shaka dependency to v4.2.1.
    Updated our HLS.js dependency to v.1.2.1.