What are the differences between the V2 and V7 Players?

Introduction

In this article, you will learn about the improvements and enhancements offered with the updated Kaltura Player. 

Motivation

The Kaltura Player and KMC player design studio offers admins a leveled-up experience. The player has a sleek intuitive design, which supports new and existing plugins with a faster load time. Coupled with an updated look & feel, enhanced security, and performance, the studio and player are a one-stop-shop for all streaming needs.

1. Shorter load time
2. Modular player bundle, containing the minimum code required for playback
3. Performance improvements
4. Easy development of plugins for additional functionality
5. More options for UI/UX customization
6. Exposing playback and license adapters
7. New plugins such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Smartswitch and Broadpeak
8. Supports IPv6

Embed Types

When using embed codes, you can select from one of three options: Auto Embed, Dynamic Embed, and Iframe Embed.
All of these are available through the Kaltura Management Console (KMC) for embedding both V2 and V7 players on an HTML page. To learn more, see Embed Code differences Between Kaltura Player v2 and v7.

Player Configuration

The Kaltura Player V7 allows setting configuration options in KMC and overriding them through either the application or the local storage.

Unlike the V2 player, the V7 player uses a json object for configuration, with all of the configuration settings located under this object. The player can be configured at startup using setup() method, or during runtime using the configure() method.

Player API

While the KalturaPLayer V2 provided several classes exposing different API functions, the V7 player exposes all of its API using the KalturaPlayer class and the player instance created by invoking KalturaPlayer.setup.

Playback Engines

The V7 player supports most of the media formats supported by the V2 player, except for HDS, MSS, Multicast and P2P streaming. The V7 player also adds support for offline playback.

Platform support

V7 Player supports playback on Smart TV devices, including support for native HTML5 video playback on supported platforms.

UI

The V7 player supports most of the UI functionality of the V2 player, and includes multiple graphic enhancements, giving it an updated and user-friendly user experience.

The V7 player comes working out-of-the-box, and unlike the V2 player does not require enabling plugins for ui controls such as quality and volume selection.

Users can extend the ui by creating their own plugins, use css to style the player elements, or even disable the player’s default player ui controls if they want to.

Analytics

The V7 player supports most of the analytics platforms supported by the V2 player. For more information, please refer to https://github.com/kaltura/kaltura-player-js/blob/mwEmbed-vs-playkitjs/docs/mwembed-playkitjs-parity.md#analytics.

Advertising

In addition to VAST and VPAID ads supported in V2, the V7 player also supports VMAP ads and IMA DAI ads.

Plugins

All of the plugin functionality of the V2 player is expected to be migrated into the V7 player. In addition, the V7 player supports additional plugins such as the Broadpeak plugin.