Long-awaited release: Flash fallback via video.js and ABR API

Aug. 11, 2015

Today’s Viblast Player v6.0 finally scales the mountain of work called Flash fallback - and, consequently, adds Firefox and IE 10+ support for video.js users. The second major addition is an updated API for working with adaptive bitrate (ABR) streams.

Implementing Flash fallback, as any adventure, is best done in a team, so we stepped on the work of the fantastic community behind video.js player. Our close integration with video.js enables everyone using this open-source player to serve HLS & MPEG-DASH without resorting to Flash.

So if you are looking to move away from Flash and into the realm of plugin-free HTML5 playback - while at the same time maintaining full browser compatibility - now is the time to go for а lightweight HTML5 solution. A few lucky ones may have never have started using Flash in the first place. Yours is an easy life - start straight with HTML5 and don’t look back!

Viblast now registers as a video.js tech and we are releasing an improved integration with video.js and its Flash fallback mechanism. With the release of Firefox 42, expected to bring full MSE support in early November, you will only resort to Flash fallback for IE <11.

Good things, they are a coming. We look forward to your comments  - how’s this update working out for you?

What’s new in Viblast Player v6.0 (in short):

  • Flash fallback via video.js player
  • Added API functionality for ABR 
  • Added Viblast.printDebugInfo() function assisting debugging problems

Note: If you have a current integration of video.js, there are two things you’ll need to change to get this update: 1) Make sure that viblast.js is included after video.js and 2) Change the type attribute of the video source to application/x-mpegURL.

It’s all described in this document.

Back