Introduction
RTL has upgraded the Kaltura media player available in bCourses and Mediaspace from the older V2 player to the new V7 player. The functionality of the new V7 player is the essentially the same as that of the current V2 player (with a few new features), but the player interface is different.
New functionality
- You can hide the smaller stream of a dual-stream video.
- The Transcript, when available, shows clickable timestamps. You can also have the transcript viewer pop out into a new window.
- You can click on the Settings button (gear icon) in the playbar area to customize how captions appear on the screen; decide between different sizes, backgrounds, font size, and more.
- The v7 player remembers where you last stopped watching a video (or listening to an audio file), so you can resume playback where you last left off. If you're viewing a playlist, it will also remember where you were when you go back to that playlist.
- On a video’s Edit page, you can easily download both streams of a dual stream video (For owners and co-editors of videos only)
- If a video has Chapters, they are visible on the timeline.
- If you’re playing a dual-stream video, you can hover on the timeline to see a dual-stream preview. (Note: this feature is temporarily broken. We expect it to be fixed by Kaltura soon.)
UI elements that have moved or changed slightly
Refer to Kaltura’s v7 Comparison Tool page to see the v2 and v7 players side-by-side.
- Video controls: The V2 player, when it first loaded, would typicallly display all the elements for controlling the player. The V7 player displays only a large play button in the center of the video window at first; only after you click that Play button will you see all the controls.
- Transcript:
- Show Transcript button is now in the upper right of the video window (whereas in the v2 player you could click “Show Transcript” in the space below the playbar).
- The transcript shows on the right side of the player (rather than below).
- You can download the transcript by clicking the “...” button, and choosing “Download current transcript” (whereas in the v2 player, there was a download icon to the left of the “Show Transcript” link)
- Close the transcript by clicking the X in the upper right corner (whereas in the v2 player you clicked “Hide Transcript”)
- Playback speed: To control playback speed, click the Settings icon (gear) and then select from the drop down menu next to Speed.
- Volume control: located in the lower right of the player, rather than the lower left.
- Dual-stream video controls for swapping which stream is the primary stream or putting them side-by-side are now on top of the smaller stream (whereas in the v2 player they were on top of the larger stream, in the upper right of the window).
- If a video has chapters, you can navigate the chapters by clicking the search icon (magnifying glass) in the upper right hand corner, and clicking on the individual chapters (whereas the Chapters icon was in the upper left corner with the v2 player).
- New V7 audio-only player cuts out options that are unnecessary for audio playback, like full screen option, but still has the ability to play/pause, seek forward and back, adjust speed, and adjust volume. The V7 player also displays the media’s title; this was missing from the V2 player.
Changes to be aware of (if you embed Kaltura content)
- Video player dimensions on pages where you’ve embedded videos using the v2 player may not be quite right. While we’ve swapped out v7 players for your old v2 players, there was no way for us to “fix” the space reserved on the page for the players. (The v2 player took up more vertical space, since the controls were below the video content space, whereas the v7 player’s controls show as an overlay on the video content space.) If you are unhappy with the amount of space above or below your player you can re-embed your video OR (if the original embed was done prior to 2024) change the dimensions in the html.
- There were some video players previously available for embedding content that we have chosen not to continue to provide given that their usage has been low and/or their functionality is no longer needed. Specifically, we will no longer have video players without speed controls; such players will be replaced in existing embeds with players that do have speed controls, and you won’t have a choice to embed players without speed controls. You will also no longer see a choice of a video player “with transcript expanded”, since that was offered to compensate for page design issues that occurred as a result of the transcript appearing below the player; now that the transcript appears to the right of the video, we don't anticipate those same page design issues.