Video.js v5.x quality picker

Adds quality picker menus to video.js which allows users to perform manual quality selection for multi-bitrate video, or multi-language audio / subtitles. Plugin works with video.js v5.x.

NOTE: In this project, quality can refer to:

• a specific video / audio bitrate (or auto selection)
• a specific audio / subtitle language (or disabled subtitles)

Development

1. npm install -- install the dependencies.
2. npm run lint -- run lint check.
3. npm run build -- build the quality picker.
4. npm run dev -- starts Webpack dev server.

Usage

This plugin can't be used as a standalone library. It requires manual integration with video.js playback Tech or Source handler. Currently it's integrated into videojs5-hlsjs-source-handler.

To integrate quality picker into your project include it first by running npm install --save videojs-quality-picker. Then modify video.js Tech or SourceHandler(or create your own one). See integration example below.

Video.js requires explicit plugin initialization, so after video.js is created, initialize plugin:

var player = videojs('example-video', options);
player.qualityPickerPlugin(); // IMPORTANT: Initialization of quality picker plugin, it won't work otherwise.

Integration with video.js Tech or Source handler

How it works

The plugin listens to the custom event loadedqualitydata fired by player's tech / source handler.

The tech must:

• Get the quality list from the underlying playback technology
• Format the quality list to the format given below
• Implement a callback function for the click action on the quality picker
• Trigger a custom tech event loadedqualitydata, with a payload which format is described below

Expected payload format

Here is expected payload structure:

{
  qualityData: {
    video: [ Quality ], // An array of Quality objects, as defined below
    audio: [ Quality ],
    subtitle: [ Quality ]
  },
  qualitySwitchCallback: Function // callback function used for quality switching, as defined below
}

NOTES:

• In the following, track type refers to the enum: "video" | "audio" | "subtitle".
• it's not mandatory to pass an array of Quality for every track type, it can be undefined. No quality picker button will be added for this track type.
• If the length of a Quality array is <= 1, no quality picker button will be added for its track type.

qualitySwitchCallback

qualitySwitchCallback(qualityId, trackType)

This callback function will be called with the Quality id and the the track type as arguments. Its role is to effectively perform the quality change on the player

Quality

Representation examples

{
  id: -1,
  label: 'auto',
  selected: true
}

{
  id: { adaptationSetId: 0, representationId: 2},
  label: '720p',
  selected: false
}

Properties

property | type |description ------------|-------|----------------------------------- id | Any | Unique identifier for the quality. Can be an integer (level index for HLS), or an object ( {adaptationSetId: ..., representationId: ...} for Dash) . label | String | The text that will be displayed to identify this quality in the drop down menu selected | Boolean | Should be true for ONE quality ONLY: the one that is currently played by the player

Hls.js integration example

Add videojs-quality-picker to your project by running npm install --save videojs-quality-picker.

    require("videojs-quality-picker"); // include videojs-quality-picker
    
    // hls.js init
    var hls = new Hls(config);
    hls.on(Hls.Events.MANIFEST_PARSED, onManifestParsed); // Listen to the event MANIFEST_PARSED, to get the quality list.

    hls.loadSource(url);
    hls.attachMedia(video);

    //...
    //...
    //...


    // Callback function
    function switchQuality(qualityId, trackType) {
        hls.nextLevel = qualityId; // Perform quality switch using hls.js API
    }

    function onManifestParsed(event, data) {
        // 1. Format payload
        var cleanTracklist = [];

        // Add an "auto" quality.
        if (data.levels.length > 1) {
            var autoLevel = {
                id: -1,
                label: "auto",
                selected: -1 === hls.manualLevel
            };
            cleanTracklist.push(autoLevel);
        }

        // Format each hls level into the expected "Quality" format
        data.levels.forEach(function(level, index) {
            var quality = {}; // Don't write in level (shared reference with Hls.js)
            quality.id = index;
            quality.selected = index === hls.manualLevel;
            quality.label = _levelLabel(level);

            cleanTracklist.push(quality);
        });

        var payload = {
            qualityData: {video: cleanTracklist},
            qualitySwitchCallback: switchQuality
        };

        // 2. Trigger custom event from tech
        tech.trigger('loadedqualitydata', payload);

        // Helper method used to format the Quality's label
        function _levelLabel(level) {
            if (level.height) return level.height + "p";
            else if (level.width) return Math.round(level.width * 9 / 16) + "p";
            else if (level.bitrate) return (level.bitrate / 1000) + "kbps";
            else return 0;
        }
    }

**Don't forget to initialize the plugin after initializing video.js

var player = videojs('example-video');
player.qualityPickerPlugin();

List of supported video.js plugins & source handlers

• Quality picker if fully integrated into videojs5-hlsjs-source-handler, which adds HLS playback support to video.js 5.x using Dailymotion's hls.js library.