VideoJS (Zencoder, YC W10) re-launches with new site, new features, still free. | Hacker News Reader

VideoJS (Zencoder, YC W10) re-launches with new site, new features, still free.

video-js.com

86 pointsHeff17 comments

as a designer, I can't thank you enough for making a video player that is easy to skin and more importantly... responsive.

scrubbing the timeline produced no noticeable lag whereas flash-based players seem to crap out on me all the time. maybe it's just the streaming server but it seems too consistent across multiple sites to be a server issue.

Totally agree, no lag whatsoever. I really wish I knew about this before for a site I was making. And great plans - I love the pay-as-you-go pricing. As a person who doesn't do too much video editing but occasionally makes long videos, this is perfect for me. I don't have to be forced to subscribe to a monthly plan on vimeo, which doesn't justify the occasional video I make (which goes beyond their restrictions)

Just curious, what does "re-launches" mean here ?

It certainly doesn't look like you guys are pivoting away from Zencoder, since the overlap between the two seems minimal.

This is a side-project, correct ?

It's a complimentary project. Most people who need video encoding also need a video player.

The headline is a little ambiguous; it is VideoJS that is relaunching (new version, new site), not Zencoder relaunching as VideoJS. :)

Great video player. I will be pushing clients to use this instead of flash-only players for sure.

Wow, that looks really amazing.

Some strange things happen when opened at my android phone though: - I see a plugin placeholder (does it resort to flash on phones?) - When clicked, the video started playing, including sound (even though my phone was set to 'silent'). That last part was really annoying, why can't I just use my phone's volume control buttons?

For the rest it worked awesome :)

Nice work — unfortunately full screen fails to work on Safari 5 for me =(

this.video.webkitEnterFullScreen() causes the following error: INVALID_STATE_ERR: DOM Exception 11: An attempt was made to use an object that is not, or is no longer, usable.

That's strange. It's working for me. Does it happen for you every time? Any other info?

Yes, it happens every time — even after restarting the browser.

Short of debugging it properly myself, is there a debug mode that i can enable to get info to help you find the problem?

Awesome! One thing that jumped out at me (especially when comparing the Vimeo / YouTube skins) is that the play buttons are not anti-aliased. I highly recommend making them inline base64 PNGs, so they look smooth as well as still being optimized.

Small bug: when you click to fullsize and then exit you lose your scroll position, occasionally putting the video out of sight. Try it on one of the bottom videos on the skins page.

It looks awesome, though. Nice job.

Ah, totally. "Full window" mode sets overflow:hidden on the document to get rid of any scroll bar. Which then resets the page to the top. I could probably restore the scroll position afterwards. Thanks!

Wow. Never will I resort to Flash again!

Good work guys!

This is great! I wish this supported (or vice versa) Vimeo Plus videos.

So say you want a single video on your the home page of your website to demo your application. What would be the advantage of using this over just embedding a Vimeo video or something?

Up to you. Would you rather have full control over the video (encoding quality, size, hosting, player), or a one-stop solution? Each has a place.

(Vimeo explicitly forbids commercial content, or used to, but you could s/vimeo/another_provider).

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