media-chrome

What is media-chrome?

The media-chrome npm package provides a set of customizable web components for building media player controls. It allows developers to create custom media player interfaces with ease, leveraging the power of Web Components.

What are media-chrome's main functionalities?

Custom Play Button

This feature allows you to add a custom play button to your media player. The <media-play-button> component can be styled and customized to fit the design of your media player.

<media-play-button></media-play-button>

Custom Volume Control

This feature provides a custom volume control slider. The <media-volume-range> component can be used to adjust the volume of the media player and can be styled to match your player’s design.

<media-volume-range></media-volume-range>

Custom Seek Bar

This feature allows you to add a custom seek bar to your media player. The <media-seek-bar> component enables users to navigate through the media content and can be customized to fit the player’s design.

<media-seek-bar></media-seek-bar>

Custom Fullscreen Button

This feature provides a custom fullscreen button. The <media-fullscreen-button> component can be used to toggle fullscreen mode for the media player and can be styled to match the player’s design.

<media-fullscreen-button></media-fullscreen-button>

Other packages similar to media-chrome

video.js

Video.js is a popular open-source HTML5 video player that provides a wide range of features and plugins for customizing the video player interface. It offers a robust API and supports various media formats and streaming protocols. Compared to media-chrome, Video.js is more feature-rich and has a larger community, but it may be more complex to customize.

plyr

Plyr is a simple, lightweight, and accessible HTML5 media player. It supports video, audio, and YouTube/Vimeo embeds. Plyr provides a clean and modern interface with easy customization options. Compared to media-chrome, Plyr is more lightweight and easier to set up, but it may not offer as much flexibility in terms of custom components.

mediaelement

MediaElement.js is a JavaScript library that provides a consistent HTML5 media player interface across all browsers. It supports both audio and video playback and offers a range of plugins for additional functionality. Compared to media-chrome, MediaElement.js focuses on cross-browser compatibility and provides a more traditional approach to media player customization.

README

Your media player's dancing suit. :man_dancing:

Fully customizable media player controls using web components (native custom elements).

• Compatible with any javascript framework (React, Angular, Svelte, etc.)
• Compatible with the <video> and <audio> elements and a lot of players (YouTube, HLS.js, and more)
• Simple HTML to add/remove controls
• Simple CSS to style the controls

From Mux and the creator of Video.js.

Documentation

Visit the official documentation for Media Chrome for the latest up-to-date usage instructions.

You can find the documentation for v0.x of media-chrome here.

Examples

See all of the repo examples in action.

Video Example

<script type="module" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/media-chrome@4/+esm"></script>

<media-controller>
  <video
    slot="media"
    src="https://stream.mux.com/DS00Spx1CV902MCtPj5WknGlR102V5HFkDe/high.mp4"
    crossorigin
  >
    <track
      label="thumbnails"
      default
      kind="metadata"
      src="https://image.mux.com/DS00Spx1CV902MCtPj5WknGlR102V5HFkDe/storyboard.vtt"
    />
  </video>
  <media-control-bar>
    <media-play-button></media-play-button>
    <media-mute-button></media-mute-button>
    <media-volume-range></media-volume-range>
    <media-time-range></media-time-range>
    <media-pip-button></media-pip-button>
    <media-fullscreen-button></media-fullscreen-button>
  </media-control-bar>
</media-controller>

Results (Try the CodePen example)

Audio Example

<script type="module" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/media-chrome@4/+esm"></script>

<media-controller audio>
  <audio
    slot="media"
    src="https://stream.mux.com/O4h5z00885HEucNNa1rV02wZapcGp01FXXoJd35AHmGX7g/audio.m4a"
  ></audio>
  <media-control-bar>
    <media-play-button></media-play-button>
    <media-time-display showduration></media-time-display>
    <media-time-range></media-time-range>
    <media-playback-rate-button></media-playback-rate-button>
    <media-mute-button></media-mute-button>
    <media-volume-range></media-volume-range>
  </media-control-bar>
</media-controller>

Results (Try the CodePen example)

Use with React

While you technically can use Media Chrome elements directly with React, it can sometimes be a bit clunky to work with Web Components in React, and some things just don't feel idiomatic to the framework (for example: having to use class= instead of className=, see React's official docs regarding web components for more details). To help with this, we've published some React wrapper components for all of our core Elements. You can read up on using them here.

Why?

More often than not web designers and developers just use the default media player controls, even when creating a beautiful custom design theme. It's hard not to.

• Web browsers have built-in media controls that can't easily be customized and look different in every browser.
• Social sites like Youtube, Vimeo, and SoundCloud only let you customize small details of the player, like primary button color.
• Media controls are complex and hard to build from scratch. Open source players like Video.js and JW Player help, but require you to learn proprietary JS APIs, and can be difficult to use with popular Javascript frameworks.

It should be easier... <media-chrome> is an attempt at solving that.

Why now?

Web components. @heff spoke about the potential of web components for video at Demuxed 2015, and again in 2020. They allow us to extend the browser's base HTML functionality, meaning we can now build media player controls as simple HTML tags that:

• Can be used like any native HTML tag in HTML, Javascript, and CSS (unleash your designer)
• Are compatible by default with Javascript frameworks (React, Angular, Svelte)
• Can be used across players when using multiple in the same site, e.g Youtube & <video>. (Could even be used by players as their own built-in controls)

Core Concepts

• Design Principles
• Architecture