Recent Brightcove Product Updates
July 1st and June 22nd updates:
* Brightcove App SDK for iOS: Version 1.2.1 with iOS 4 support: We released an updated version of the Brightcove App SDK for iOS to support Apple iOS 4.0. More here: http://developer.brightcove.com/en/artic...
* New player templates for mobile devices: We introduced two new standard player templates that are optimized for mobile devices; the Mobile Optimized Video Player and the Mobile Optimized Video Player with Horizontal Video List. More here: http://support.brightcove.com/en/docs/pl...
* Brightcove App SDK for Android: The initial version of is now available and enables you to develop apps that deliver Brightcove video to Android OS devices. More here: http://developer.brightcove.com/en/artic...
And a reminder of two other recent product updates:
* Custom Transcode Settings: Use the Brightcove Studio to configure fine-grained transcoding settings that are used when you upload videos for transcoding by Brightcove’s Adaptive Encoding Engine. You have the power! More information here: http://support.brightcove.com/en/docs/vi...
* Re-encoding videos with FTP batch provisioning: Brightcove Pro and Enterprise publishers can now use FTP batch provisioning to direct Brightcove to re-encode the video files for a video, while retaining all of the video’s metadata. More information here: http://support.brightcove.com/en/docs/re...
HTML5 Update
Based on feedback on the rollout of our upcoming native HTML5 experiences (not based on the available MobileCompatibility.js method, as outlined here: http://bit.ly/9wzTJA) we’re looking to add more polish and completeness prior to our initial release.
We have also wanted to provide more explicit control to our customers in managing activation of HTML5 experiences. As such we are now targeting our first public milestone for the BC 4.2 release in mid-August. We’re still primarily focused on single video player experiences with a target of natively supporting the following templates and any simple custom derivatives using their BEML components.
1. Video Player
2. Chromeless Video Player
3. Video Player with Logo
Prior to any release to our customers we are going to ensure that geo-restriction, domain restriction and IP restriction controls are honored for HTML5 as well as Flash experiences. This is a change in our initial plans, but we feel this will help resolve lingering concerns that customers may have with even some amount of HTML5 experimentation.
HTML5 FAQ…
Q: What about players I created and published before the release?
A: If you published them with the Javascript publishing code, then existing players will be enabled for HTML5 automatically.
Q: What if I don’t publish my players using Javascript?
A: Device detection won’t work unless you’ve published using JS publishing code. If a publisher wants to leverage our new smart players then they will have to publish using the Javascript publishing code.
Q: What player functionality differences are there between the HTML5 and Flash version of the player?
A: Player sharing features and menus (get link, get code, blog, email) are not available in the HTML5 version of the players. We are working to add this functionality later in the year.
There is no volume control on the player, users have to use the device volume controls.
Q: What if I don’t want my players to be smart (HTML5-compatible)?
A: Not sure why you wouldn’t want them to be HTML5-compatible, but if that’s not the case, every single video player will have a checkbox to enable/disable HTML5 in the Publishing module.
Q: What’s next for our smart player and HTML5 support?
A: We are working on supporting more of our BEML components (and therefore more player templates) as we expand our HTML5 support. The next goal is to add HTML5 support for single and multiple playlist players (target is late summer/early fall). A robust plugin framework, advertising integrations, and analytics plugins won’t be available until later this year or 2011.
Feature of the Month: Video Smoothing
Brightcove can use video smoothing to improve the perceived quality of video playback. There’s a trade-off, however, between the added quality you might get by using video smoothing and the additional CPU burden that video smoothing imposes on the client. By default, Brightcove uses video smoothing for videos with a bit rate less than 950 kbps, and does not use video smoothing for videos with a bit rate greater than or equal to 950 kbps.
You can override this default video smoothing behavior by including the optional videoSmoothing configuration parameter in your player publishing code. Read more about Video smoothing here: http://support.brightcove.com/en/docs/vi...
The Studio’s Media Module video preview uses Video Smoothing on All Renditions. So if video looks “better” in Preview than it does on your website, the most likely cause is Video Smoothing.