Open Video Player (OVP)

Welcome!

Open Video Player (OVP) is an initiative encompassing the use of open standards, best practices, and established development methodologies in the development of media player applications.  Currently this project provides a code base that can be used to solve common problems as part of building advanced, scalable, and robust web-based media player applications in Flash and Silverlight.

OVP is developed and maintained by a core team of dedicated volunteers.  OVP is distributed for free and "as-is" on SourceForge under a standard BSD license.

Simply put, our goal is to bring transparency to the development of compelling engaging media playback experiences and encourage the proliferation of online video through a community effort, leveraging best practices and open standards where possible.

We welcome your feedback, contributions, and ideas on ways to achieve this ongoing goal through this initiative.

- The OVP Team

To learn more about OVP and this site, please visit "Get Started" in the "Home" section of this site, or click here.

Hello OVP for Flash fans,

A new version of OVP for Adobe Flash is now available.

This release includes the following changes:
1. MultiPlayer fix : In VideoController.as, removed extraneous call to connect() that was causing a double-video to be rendered for _model.TYPE_AMD_ONDEMAND content.
2. OVP Core : In AkamaiConnection, modified subscribeRequiredForLiveStreams() to only return true for FMS versions < 3.5
3. OVP Core : In AkamaiDynamicNetStream, modified resetAllLiveTimers() function to allow for timers not established if subscribe was not required.
4. VAST plugin improved to pause the host player before requesting and parsing the VAST document. This fixes the problem of the main video playing for a few seconds before it is paused for a pre-roll ad.
5. Bug fixes:
2867429 - In Model.as (MultiPlayer), removed unescape() wraps from embed and link flashvars.

- The OVP Team

Hello OVP for Flash fans,

A new version of OVP for Adobe Flash is now available!  Here is a summary of the release:

1. A new plug-in architecture is introduced in this release. The Akamai MultiPlayer implements the IOvpPlayer interface and plug-ins are specified by flashvars in the containing html. Take a look at the html file called AkamaiMultiPlayerExample_WITH_AD_PREROLL.html.

2. There are 3 new plugins in this release:
AdPlayer.swf - this plugin implements an IVPAID interface and knows how to play a video ad. This SWF implements a JavaScript bridge and can be controlled from either JavaScript or ActionScript.
VASTHandler.swf - this plugin implements the IAB VAST standard for specifying an ad experience.
MainSail.swf - this plugin implements the Akamai pre-standard called MAST (Media Abstract Sequencing Template) representing the “when” and “where” of the ad experience.

3. There are two new Flex samples showing the new Ad plugins, The Flex Builder project is called flex-advertising and can be found in the /trunk/flash/samples/flex-advertising folder.  There is also a Flash sample in /trunk/flash/samples/flash/akamai/CS4advertisingSampleRSS.

4. There is a new OvpClientProxy class in the org.openvideoplayer.net package and the client property on the OvpNetStream class has changed. See the client “setter” in OvpNetStream.as, or the ASDocs for more info.

5. The Akamai MultiPlayer has been modified:

• to properly use hardware scaling in fullscreen mode.
• a new flashvar has been added to disable the fullscreen button (enableFullscreen parameter).
• to resize video based on video.videoWidth and video.videoHeight if no metadata present.
• to accept a starting image placeholder.
• to implement the IOvpPlayer interface.

6. Modified CS4sampleLive.fla to show how to correctly supply auth params.

7. Modified Flex samples to show how to correctly supply auth params. Removed all mentions of connection auth from the AkamaiSampleLive.mxml Flex project.

8. New blinkx integration (blinkx.com) sample can be found in /trunk/flash/samples/flash/OVP_Blinkx_API.

9. There is now a Flex Builder project for the core code.  Simply import the project found in /trunk/flash/core into Flex Builder to build the core SWC.

10. Bug fixes:
2837857 - rtmpe connection url fails for servers which enforce rtmpe
2819734 - OvpConnection.call is broken
2819730 - OvpConnection doesn’t dispatch FCSUBSCRIBE event
2819315 - AkamaiNetStream FCSubscribe should stop on close()
2805149 - In Flash multiplayer, with autostart=false, seek & play fail
2784483 - Disable fullscreen button for MultiPlayer
2779896 - Multi-player v2 - video scaling when metadata not present

To see these features in action, check out the samples page on the project site.  For more information about implementing these features, check out the documentation page on the project site which is also included with the code library.

As always if you have questions, feedback, and comments, please use our forums to let us know!

- The OVP Team

Dear OVP fans:

In an effort to make using the forums more effective, we are going to introduce a new simplified forum structure.  The proposed structure will be as follows:

• OVP for Adobe Flash. Post all of your questions, comments, concerns, ideas, and feedback about the OVP for Adobe Flash code here.
• OVP for Microsoft Silverlight. Post all of your questions, comments, concerns, ideas, and feedback about the OVP for Microsoft Silverlight code here.
• General. Post all of your non-format specific questions, comments, concerns, ideas, and feedback about OVP here.

These new forums will be created on Thursday, April 23, 2009.  Suggestions and comments are welcome.  Once the new forums are in place, the title for the legacy forums will be modified to include “- DEPRECATED” and you will be required to use the new forums for new postings.  We will still address open items in the legacy forums.

-OVP Team

OVP fans,

A new version of OVP for Adobe Flash is now available!  A summary of what is included is provided below.

New features

• Captioning. The ability to optionally display a text version of the audio track for a video file (or audio file) in a media player application to provide additional or interpretive information to viewers.
  • New “simple” samples written in Adobe Flash CS4 and Flex are included to demonstrate this feature.
• Dynamic streaming enhancements. Further optimization in the heuristics in dynamic stream switching for on-demand Adobe Flash streams. The ability to provide the highest quality Flash streaming content a client can handle for the best experience during the playback.
  • New “simple” samples written in Adobe Flash CS4 and Adobe Flex are included to demonstrate this feature.
  • This feature will also be supported in the pre-built “MultiPlayer” available for immediate deployment and use.

Changes

• Modified package structure. The distribution of this version will be slightly different than in previous versions. It will be available as follows:
  • 4 separate download compressed (ZIP) packages
    • Core code library (Adobe ActionScript 3) with documentation
    • Core code library (SWC - static library) with documentation
    • “Simple” samples in Adobe Flash CS4 and Adobe Flex with documentation
    • Pre-built “MultiPlayer” (compiled SWF and Adobe Flash CS4 source) with deployment code and documentation (user guide)
• CS4 only samples. The “simple” samples will no longer be provided in Adobe Flash CS3.
• Core code library restructuring. The Akamai specific features in the core code library have been completely separated from the open features.  This will require simple changes in existing projects to take advantage of the new features.

Bug fixes

• Multiple non-critical fixes (see the release notes included with the release).

To see these features in action, check out the samples page on the project site.  For more information about implementing these features, check out the documentation page on the project site which is also included with the code library.

As always if you have questions, feedback, and comments, please use our forums to let us know!

- The OVP Team

The release of v2.1 of OpenVideoPlayer for Silverlight is substantial, with enhancements to player functionality, theming, and the plugin system. See the changelog for full details.

Highlights:

• New theming system based on the Microsoft Silverlight Toolkit
  - Allows for xaml templates to be applied at runtime
  - Change player look and feel without code or compiling
• User Interface improvements
  - New Quality Meter - especially useful for AdaptiveEdge content
  - Dynamic scaling option, adjusts player size based on browser window
  - Added download progress bar to scrubber for progressive content
  - improvements to logs and statistics
• Plug-In system
  - Now supports XAP plug-ins for more flexibility
  - New plugins parameter for InitParams
  - Now supports Ad connectors as well as alternate streaming types
• General Improvements
  - Substantial performance enhancements, especially for rendering HD
  - InitParams will resolve any player property automatically
  - Many enhancements to AdaptiveEdge plugin (not yet public)

The release can be previewed at http://openvideoplayer.sf.net/ovpsl

Download source and binary packages here.

Hey OVP there community!  This is just a quick note to let everyone know that OVP for Flash 1.1 was released on Friday, Jan 16, 2009.

Highlights:

• Support for Adobe dynamic stream switching using FMS 3.5
  • Deliver Flash content at the most appropriate data rate based on network and end user computer conditions
  • Quick sample reference implementations in Flash CS4 and Flex 3 specific to dynamic stream switching (FMS 3.5)
• Run-time ActionScript based cue point management (cue points cause the video playback to start other actions within the presentation and let you synchronize the video with animation, text, graphics, and other interactive content)
  • Add/modify/delete cue points at run-time for time-based
  • Sample reference implementation available

To see these features in action, check out the samples page on the project site.  For more information about implementing these features, check out the documentation page on the project site which is also included with the code library.

As always if you have questions, feedback, and comments, please use our forums to let us know!

- The OVP Team