What is video.js?
Video.js is a web video player built from the ground up for an HTML5 world. It supports HTML5 video and modern streaming formats, as well as YouTube, Vimeo, and even Flash (through plugins). It provides a consistent look and feel across different browsers and devices.
What are video.js's main functionalities?
Basic Video Player
This code sets up a basic video player using Video.js. It includes the necessary CSS and JavaScript files from a CDN and initializes a video element with controls.
<html>
<head>
<link href="https://vjs.zencdn.net/7.11.4/video-js.css" rel="stylesheet" />
</head>
<body>
<video id="my-video" class="video-js" controls preload="auto" width="640" height="264" data-setup='{}'>
<source src="MY_VIDEO.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
<p class="vjs-no-js">
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that
<a href="https://videojs.com/html5-video-support/" target="_blank">supports HTML5 video</a>
</p>
</video>
<script src="https://vjs.zencdn.net/7.11.4/video.min.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
Customizing the Player
This example demonstrates how to customize the player by applying a theme. The 'vjs-theme-city' class is added to the video element to change its appearance.
<html>
<head>
<link href="https://vjs.zencdn.net/7.11.4/video-js.css" rel="stylesheet" />
</head>
<body>
<video id="my-video" class="video-js vjs-theme-city" controls preload="auto" width="640" height="264" data-setup='{}'>
<source src="MY_VIDEO.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
<p class="vjs-no-js">
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that
<a href="https://videojs.com/html5-video-support/" target="_blank">supports HTML5 video</a>
</p>
</video>
<script src="https://vjs.zencdn.net/7.11.4/video.min.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
Plugins and Extensions
This example shows how to use the videojs-contrib-ads plugin to add advertisements to your video. The plugin is included via a CDN, and the player is configured to show a pre-roll ad.
<html>
<head>
<link href="https://vjs.zencdn.net/7.11.4/video-js.css" rel="stylesheet" />
</head>
<body>
<video id="my-video" class="video-js" controls preload="auto" width="640" height="264" data-setup='{}'>
<source src="MY_VIDEO.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
<p class="vjs-no-js">
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that
<a href="https://videojs.com/html5-video-support/" target="_blank">supports HTML5 video</a>
</p>
</video>
<script src="https://vjs.zencdn.net/7.11.4/video.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/videojs-contrib-ads@6.6.4/dist/videojs.ads.min.js"></script>
<script>
var player = videojs('my-video');
player.ads();
player.on('readyforpreroll', function() {
player.ads.startLinearAdMode();
player.src('AD_VIDEO.mp4');
player.one('adended', function() {
player.ads.endLinearAdMode();
});
});
</script>
</body>
</html>
Other packages similar to video.js
plyr
Plyr is a simple, accessible, and customizable HTML5 media player. It supports modern streaming formats and provides a clean and minimalistic design. Compared to Video.js, Plyr is more lightweight and easier to customize but may lack some advanced features and plugin support.
mediaelement
MediaElement.js is a JavaScript library that provides a consistent HTML5 video and audio player across all browsers. It supports a wide range of media formats and offers a variety of plugins. MediaElement.js is similar to Video.js in terms of functionality but focuses more on providing a unified experience across different media types.
clappr
Clappr is an extensible media player for the web. It supports a wide range of media formats and streaming protocols. Clappr is highly customizable and offers a plugin architecture similar to Video.js. However, it is more focused on providing a flexible and modular framework for building custom media players.
![Video.js logo](https://videojs.com/logo-white.png)
![Slack Status](http://slack.videojs.com/badge.svg)
![NPM](https://nodei.co/npm/video.js.png?downloads=true&downloadRank=true)
Video.js is a web video player built from the ground up for an HTML5 world. It supports HTML5 video and Media Source Extensions, as well as other playback techs like YouTube and Vimeo (through plugins). It supports video playback on desktops and mobile devices. This project was started mid 2010, and the player is now used on over 50,000 100,000 200,000 400,000 700,000 websites.
Table of Contents
Quick Start
Thanks to the awesome folks over at Fastly, there's a free, CDN hosted version of Video.js that anyone can use. Add these tags to your document's <head>
:
<link href="//vjs.zencdn.net/8.3.0/video-js.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
<script src="//vjs.zencdn.net/8.3.0/video.min.js"></script>
For the latest version of video.js and URLs to use, check out the Getting Started page on our website.
Video.js version 7 (and newer) CDN builds do not send any data to Google Analytics.
In older versions of Video.js (6 and earlier), in the vjs.zencdn.net
CDN-hosted versions we include a stripped down Google Analytics pixel that tracks a random sampling (currently 1%) of players loaded from the CDN. This allows us to see (roughly) what browsers are in use in the wild, along with other useful metrics such as OS and device. If you'd like to disable analytics, you can simply include the following global before including Video.js via the free CDN:
<script>window.HELP_IMPROVE_VIDEOJS = false;</script>
Alternatively, you can include Video.js by getting it from npm, downloading from GitHub releases or by including it via unpkg or another JavaScript CDN like CDNjs. These releases do not include Google Analytics tracking at all.
<link href="https://unpkg.com/video.js/dist/video-js.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
<script src="https://unpkg.com/video.js/dist/video.min.js"></script>
<link href="https://unpkg.com/video.js@8.3.0/dist/video-js.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
<script src="https://unpkg.com/video.js@8.3.0/dist/video.min.js"></script>
<link href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/video.js/8.3.0/video-js.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/video.js/8.3.0/video.min.js"></script>
Next, using Video.js is as simple as creating a <video>
element, but with an additional data-setup
attribute. At a minimum, this attribute must have a value of '{}'
, but it can include any Video.js options - just make sure it contains valid JSON!
<video
id="my-player"
class="video-js"
controls
preload="auto"
poster="//vjs.zencdn.net/v/oceans.png"
data-setup='{}'>
<source src="//vjs.zencdn.net/v/oceans.mp4" type="video/mp4"></source>
<source src="//vjs.zencdn.net/v/oceans.webm" type="video/webm"></source>
<source src="//vjs.zencdn.net/v/oceans.ogv" type="video/ogg"></source>
<p class="vjs-no-js">
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a
web browser that
<a href="https://videojs.com/html5-video-support/" target="_blank">
supports HTML5 video
</a>
</p>
</video>
When the page loads, Video.js will find this element and automatically setup a player in its place.
If you don't want to use automatic setup, you can leave off the data-setup
attribute and initialize a <video>
element manually using the videojs
function:
var player = videojs('my-player');
The videojs
function also accepts an options
object and a callback to be invoked
when the player is ready:
var options = {};
var player = videojs('my-player', options, function onPlayerReady() {
videojs.log('Your player is ready!');
this.play();
this.on('ended', function() {
videojs.log('Awww...over so soon?!');
});
});
If you're ready to dive in, the Getting Started page and documentation are the best places to go for more information. If you get stuck, head over to our Slack channel!
Contributing
Video.js is a free and open source library, and we appreciate any help you're willing to give - whether it's fixing bugs, improving documentation, or suggesting new features. Check out the contributing guide for more!
Video.js uses BrowserStack for compatibility testing.
Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.
Video.js is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.