Kaltura V2 Player

Version:  2.86

Date Released: February 14, 2021

Overview 

These release notes pertain to Kaltura Player V2 version 2.86, released on February 14, 2021.

What's New

• Fixed an issue where long closed caption name/description (e.g. "English (Auto Generated)") display was cut off.
• Fixed an issue where player captions were shown doubled when using dual-screen.
• Fixed a issue in the playlist view where both thumbnail and poster were showing on top of each other.
• Upgraded Shaka player to version 2.5.19.
• Upgraded hls.js player to version 0.14.17.

Version:  2.85

Date Released: November 16, 2020

Overview 

These release notes pertain to Kaltura Player V2 version 2.85, released on November 16, 2020.

What's New

• Added full screen state to the player analytics data.
• Analytics: Now using POST requests when sending beacons to the Kaltura Video Analytics system.
• Fixed a bumper issue: When auto-play was set, bumper was skipped.
• Fixed an accessibility issue: Slider was not accessible by tabbing.
• Fixed a caption issue: When playing a playlist, once video ended and second had started, captions would wrongly switch off.

Version:  2.84

Date Released: October 12, 2020

Overview 

These release notes pertain to Kaltura Player V2 version 2.84, released on October 12, 2020.

What's New

• Added full screen state to the player analytics data.
• Fixed an accessibility issue: Added voice instructions for the volume slider and the seek bar, to be used by screen readers.

Version:  2.83

Date Released: June 28, 2020

Overview 

These release notes pertain to Kaltura Player V2 version 2.83, released on June 28, 2020.

What's New

• Removed old analytics plugin from the player.
• Fixed a security issue where request params could be used to issue a cross site scripting attack.
• Fixed an issue where seeking to end of the video in subsequent entries would result with an endless spinner.

Version:  2.82

Date Released: April 5, 2020

Overview 

These release notes pertain to Kaltura Player V2 version 2.82, released on April 5, 2020.

What's New

• Fixed an issue where player icons were truncated on iPhones.
• Fixed an issue where media failed to be casted using Chromecast (due to Google Cast SDK changes).
• Fixed an issue where player got stuck during live streaming when switching to DVR and then back to live edge (Internet Explorer 11)

Version:  2.81

Date Released: February 17, 2020

Overview 

These release notes pertain to Kaltura Player V2 version 2.81, released on February 17, 2020.

What's New

• Fixed an issue where captions was showing after an ad break even if they were turned off.

Version:  2.80

Date Released: December 18, 2019

Overview 

These release notes pertain to Kaltura Player V2 version 2.80, released on December 18, 2019.

What's New

• Fixed an issue where live streaming had no audio on Microsoft Edge.
• Fixed an issue where Chromecast button was not showing up although it is enabled.

Version:  2.79

Date Released: October 27, 2019

Overview 

These release notes pertain to Kaltura Player V2 version 2.79, released on October 27, 2019.

What's New

• Fixed an issue where playlist failed to load on Internet Explorer 11
• Fixed an issue where volume indication icon was invalid after um-muting audio (iOS 13 on iPad)

Version:  2.78

Date Released: August 18, 2019

Overview 

These release notes pertain to Kaltura Player V2 version 2.78, released on August 18, 2019.

What's New

• Updated hls.js to version 12.
• Now allowing more than one audio asset with the same language code (HLS only).
• Fixed an issue where off air playback (live with DVR) failed on Internet Explorer 11 / Windows 10.
• Fixed an issue where video was automatically replaying after post-roll (iOS 12.2 Safari)

Version:  2.77

Date Released: July 21, 2019

Overview 

These release notes pertain Kaltura Player V2 version 2.77, released on July 21, 2019.

What's New

• Fixed an issue where player was initiating a DRM session even if content is clear.

Version:  2.76

Date Released: May 26, 2019

Overview 

These release notes pertain Kaltura Player V2 version 2.76, released on May 26, 2019.

What's New

• Fixed an issue where pause button had to be clicked twice in order to pause the playback.
• Fixed an issue where selecting a different source to play while playback is paused caused the player to hang.

Version:  2.75

Date Released: April 3, 2019

Overview 

These release notes pertain Kaltura Player V2 version 2.75, released on April 3, 2019.

What's New

• Added support for the muted auto-play policy of Firefox 66
• Fixed an issue where black screen was appearing when resuming a live stream

Version:   2.74

Date Released: Feb 3, 2019

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Feb 3, 2019

What's New

• Fixed an issue in Internet Explorer 11 in which no audio was heard during live entries playout.
• Fixed an issue with the download operation for cases where only the source file exists.

Version: 2.73

Date Released:  Dec 16, 2018

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released  Dec 16, 2018.

What's New

Release 2.73 includes updates to support the Kaltura Advanced Video Analytics (KAVA) plugin

Version:  2.72

Date Released: Oct 18, 2018

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Oct 18, 2018.

What's New

• A Chapters button has been added to videos when video chapters are available.
• Support has been added so that videos now begin to play automatically on Safari 12 on Mac OS X (even if the Kaltura Player is not muted).
• Support has been added to allow playing videos in Sharepoint using Document Mode 10 in Internet Explorer
• PHP7: The Kaltura Player code has been updated to support PHP7.

Version: 2.71.2

Date Released:  Aug 21, 2018

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Aug 21, 2018.

What's New

• The default langauge selected is now supported natively by the iOS browser. This change enables us to config closedCaptions.useCookie: false and still enjoy the user preferences saved by the browser.

Version:  2.71

Date Released: Aug 15, 2018

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Aug 15, 2018.

What's New

• The player now supports Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP),

Version:  2.70

Date Released:  July 1, 2018

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released July 1, 2018.

Version 2.70 was released as a maintenance version.

Version:  2.69

Date Released: May 6, 2018

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player V2 released May 6, 2018.

Version 2.69 was released as a maintenance version.

Version:  2.68

Date Released: April 8, 2018

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released April 8, 2018.

Version 2.68 was released as a maintenance version.

Version:  2.67

Date Released: March 11, 2018

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released March 11, 2018.

What's New

• The Shaka Playback Engine has been upgraded to v2.3.2

Version: 2.66

Date Released:  Feb 11, 2018

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Feb 11, 2018.

What's New?

• Added the INSECURE mode for the IMA plugin, which allows VPAID ads in insecure mode. For details, see https://developers.google.com/interactive-media-ads/docs/sdks/html5/vpaid2js.

Version:  2.65

Date Released: Jan 14, 2018

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Jan 14, 2018.

What's New?

•  Live captions – Added support for CEA-708 and CEA-608
• HLSJS version upgraded to 0.8.9

Version: 2.64

Date Released: Dec 17, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Dec 17, 2017.

What's New

• Lead with HLS by default on Android browsers: If you wish to lead with Progressive on Android on your player, please set KalturaLeadHLSOnAndroid to False.
  

Version: 2.63

Date Released: Nov 19, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Nov 19, 2017.

Version 2.63 was released as a maintenance version, and includes some accessiblity improvements, specifically to IVQ accessiblity. Refer to the Release Notes for IVQ for details.

Version: 2.62

Date Released: Oct 22, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Oct 22, 2017.

What's New

• New Autoplay handling: Safari 11, released on September 19 for iOS11 and macOS, no longer supports autoplay for videos with sound. When set to autoplay, videos must now start muted, with sound enabled only upon a specific user interaction with the player itself.
  Version 2.62 of the Kaltura player includes an automatic fallback to the muted autoplay option. By default, the player will now fall back onto muted autoplay for browsers that block sound. You can also choose to fall back onto an explicit 'Play' initiation on such browsers if you do not wish to play muted videos at all (set ‘autoPlayFallbackToMute’ FlashVar to False).
• The Safari change temporarily affected the ads flow due to a bug in Google’s IMA plugin. The IMA issue was causing the first transition between a video and an advertisement to be considered as a new playback, requiring additional user interaction. This has now been fixed and the fix was incorporated in 2.62, so that ads do not require additional user interaction.
  
  

Known Issues

• Post-sequence bumpers will require an additional play click after the video ends
• Playlists with ads  - Each video in the playlist will require an additional play click

Version: 2.61

Date Released: Sept 10, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Sept 10, 2017.

What's New

Changes to 360 Flashvars – Flashvar names have been changed for simplicity:

• ‘VR’ will now be called ‘enable_vr’, meaning the VR plugin s enabled and 360 videos can be watched.
• ‘vr_mode’ will now be called ‘auto_load_as_vr’, meaning the video will load in VR mode (i.e, in split screen mode compatible with a VR device)

Version:  2.60.2

Date Released: August 17, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released August 17, 2017.

What's New

• CAP Support: The Kaltura Player now supports .CAP caption files. .CAP files can be uploaded via the APIs and via the Kaltura On-the-Fly Packager, which converts the captions to WebVTT.
• Chromecast Plugin Configuration:The Chromecast plugin can now be enabled from the Player Studio. For more information, please see Universal Studio Information - Chromecast Plugin Configuration.
• HLS.JS Upgrade: Hls.js has been upgraded to the latest version.
• Changes to keyboard shortcuts:
  • Switch views’ changed from ‘w’ to ‘x’ and allows changing the view between the different screens
  • ‘Next state’  changed from ‘q’ to ‘z’ and allows changing the video stream viewed
  • ‘Openmenu’ and ‘Closemenu’ are no longer in use and their shortcuts have been removed
• Call-to-Action Buttons: This release allows the user to add up to two brandable Call-to-Action Buttons at the end of playback, with or without related videos. Buttons defaults are defined on the player and can be overridden using entry custom metadata and embed flashvars.For more information, please see Universal Studio Information - Call to Action Buttons.

Limitations

• Only one custom data profile can be defined on the player. If custom data profile is used by any other plugin, CTA metadata fields should be added to the same custom data profile
• CTA without related videos is supported on video-on-demand, audio-on-demand (if the player includes a screen display), and YouTube entries; it is not supported on image entries, in-video-quizzes, and live entries. CTA with related videos will appear on the related screen in all cases, at the end of playback.

Version: 2.59

Date Released: July 30, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released July 30, 2017.

What's New

• Mobile Autoplay: The Kaltura Player now supports autoplay on mobile web browsers for both iOS and Android. Playback will begin muted and the sound will be turned on upon any user interaction. For more information, please see Mobile Player Support on Kaltura Player.
• VR Support on Android Devices: The Kaltura Player now supports VR headsets on Android browsers. For more information, please see Kaltura 360 and VR Video Player Support.
• Yoboura plugin upgrade: The Youbora QoE plugin has been updated to the latest version 5.4.5-1.0.0.

Version: 2.58

Date Released: July 2, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released July 2, 2017.

What's New

• The Shaka Playback Engine has been upgraded to version 2.1.3
• The Comscore analytics plugin has been upgraded to the latest Comscore version

Version: 2.56

Date Released: May 21, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released May 21, 2017.

Version 2.56 was released as a maintenance version. We are working on player 3.0, stay tuned!

Version: 2.55

Date Released: Apr 23, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Apr 23, 2017.

What's New

• Audio tracks management – Added the option to define the default audio track. For more information, see Defining a Default Audio Track.

Version: 2.54

Date Released: Mar 12, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Mar 12, 2017.

What's New

• Chromecast upgrade – The Web Receiver and sender to Google’s latest SDKs (CAST V3) has been upgraded..

Version: 2.53.2

Date Released: Feb 26, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Feb 26, 2017.

What's New

• 360 Videos – 360 video tagging added to the 360 video ingestion process for web and mobile web. See Kaltura 360 Video Player Support for more information.

Version: 2.53

Date Released: Feb 12, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Feb 12, 2017.

What's New

• 360 Videos – 360 videos are now supported for web and mobile web. See Kaltura 360 Video Player Support for more information.
• Live DRM – The Player now supports Kaltura’s uDRM solution on live streams. For more information about Kaltura’s uDRM solution, see Universal DRM (uDRM) Technical Specification.
• Multi Audio Tracks – With HLS.JS adding support for multi audio tracks, this is now fully supported across all devices and browsers.
• CVAA support for mobile devices – CVAA is now supported for mobile devices. For more information see CVAA Support within the Kaltura Player Toolkit.

Version:  2.52

Date Released:  Jan 15, 2017

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Jan 15, 2017.

Version 2.52 was released as a maintenance version.

Version: 2.51

Date Released: Dec 27, 2016

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Dec 27, 2016.

What's New

• Automatic Player Update – New studio players will now be updated automatically to the latest available player version. Customers will still be able to choose to keep their current player version and to update manually when they want.
• Airplay Support – Added improvements to high-definition playback on casted devices.
• Native SDK Playback Performance -  Added enhancements resulting in faster response times to play/pause calls).

Version: 2.50

Date Released: Nov 20, 2016

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Nov 20, 2016.

Version 2.50 was released as a maintenance vesion.

Version: 2.49

Date Released: Nov 6, 2016

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Nov 6, 2016.

What's New

• Chromecast Refactoring – Added ad support to Kaltura’s Chromecast integration.
• Airplay Support – Improvements to high definition playback on casted devices.
• Native SDK Playback Performance -  Enhancements resulting in faster response times to play/pause calls).

Version: 2.48

Date Released: Sept 25, 2016

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released Sept 25, 2016.

What's New

• HLS.JS by default –HLS.JS is now the default playback engine for HLS on Chrome, IE11+ and Firefox. Older browsers will fall back to OSMF to enable HLS delivery. 
• WV Modular on Firefox - Widevime Modular DRM is now supported on Firefox.
• Offline support of FPS for iOS10, including WebVTT and audiotracks support. 

  See the Kaltura Player Capabilities Matrix for information about the Kaltura Player Capabilities and support.

Version: 2.47

Date Released: August 29, 2016

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released August 29, 2016.

What's New

• Offline WebVTT on Android  - WebVTT captions for offline playback are now available on Android, for Android versions 4.3 and up. See the Kaltura Player Capabilities Matrix for a full Matrix of WebVTT support.
• CVAA Compliance – The Kaltura Player is now compliant with the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) and includes a styling editor for captions to enhance accessibility. See CVAA Support within the Kaltura Player Toolkit for more information.
• Safari on iOS10 - Fairplay DRM on Safari is now supported on iOS10 (awaiting iOS10 official release). See the Kaltura Player Capabilities Matrix for a full Matrix of DRM support.

Version: 2.46

Date Released: July 31, 2016

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released July 31, 2016.

What's New

• Kaltura V2 Mobile Skin Player -The new mobile skin is designed to enable a more mobile/touch friendly user experience on Kaltura's V2 players. The new mobile skin is available to all customers and is enabled via the KMC. For more information see Using the Kaltura V2 Player Mobile Skin.
• Enhancements to the Chromecast Receiver - Additional features to Kaltura's custom receiver, including:
  • New mobile skin
  • Closed captions and watermarks 
  • Analytics from the receiver
  • Double click pre-rolls
• Audio Selector in the Kaltura v2 Player - Use to enable multiple audio tracks on the player from the Player Studio.

Version: 2.45

Date Released: July 03, 2016

Overview

These release notes pertain to Player v2 released July 03, 2016.

What's New

• HLS.JS integration - Kaltura's new HLS playback engine, based on HLS.JS, replaces the OSMF plugin and improves video load time by x4 . HLS.JS can be enabled for Chrome, IE11+ and Firefox. Older browsers will fall back to OSMF to enable HLS delivery. 
• Multiple Audio Tracks - Audio tracks in multiple languages are now available for Dash, HLS and HSS.
• Inband support for WebVTT captions on HLS - WebVTT captions can now be ingested via the KMC, enabling End to End WebVTT support from ingest to playback.
• Offline Widevine modular DRM - now supported on Android 4.3 and up
• Fairplay on Safari - Fairplay DRM is now supported on Safari for Online viewing. Offline viewing will be supported in line with Apple support in iOS10.