Differences Between Player Versions

For customers familiar with Player V3, this topic describes some of the differences you will see in Player V4.

Customizing the Player Appearance

To customize the Player V4 UI, you can configure the player interface using a variety of ways - the Backlot UI, page-level parameters, in-line overrides, the skin.json config file, and CSS properties. For instructions, see Customizing the Player V4 Appearance.

Third-Party Analytics Plugins from Player V3

The Analytics Framework allows you to integrate third-party analytics with the player.

Plugins

You can use the Analytics Framework to re-create your integrations with third-party analytics providers. We offer out-of-the box integration plugins for top third-party analytics providers. Alternatively, you could work with Ooyala Professional Services to assist with your migration.

Event Messages

The Analytics Framework uses event messages that are different from the Player V3 and Player V4 events. The table below shows the mapping between the events the Analytics Framework is expecting and the Player V3/Player V4 events. You can use this mapping to create analytics plugins.

Event in the Player OO.EVENTS namespace (Example: OO.EVENTS.PLAYER_CREATED) Event in the Analytics Framework OO.Analytics.EVENTS namespace (Example: OO.Analytics.EVENTS.VIDEO_PLAYER_CREATED)
PLAYER_CREATED VIDEO_PLAYER_CREATED
EMBED_CODE_CHANGED VIDEO_SOURCE_CHANGED
METADATA_FETCHED VIDEO_STREAM_METADATA_UPDATED
CONTENT_TREE_FETCHED VIDEO_CONTENT_METADATA_UPDATED
INITIAL_PLAY INITIAL_PLAYBACK_REQUESTED
PLAYED PLAYBACK_COMPLETED
PLAY VIDEO_PLAY_REQUESTED
PLAYING VIDEO_PLAYING
PAUSE VIDEO_PAUSE_REQUESTED
PAUSED VIDEO_PAUSED
REPLAY VIDEO_REPLAY_REQUESTED
SEEK VIDEO_SEEK_REQUESTED
SEEKED VIDEO_SEEK_COMPLETED
DOWNLOADING VIDEO_STREAM_DOWNLOADING
BUFFERING VIDEO_BUFFERING_STARTED
BUFFERED VIDEO_BUFFERING_ENDED
WILL_PLAY_ADS AD_BREAK_STARTED
ADS_PLAYED AD_BREAK_ENDED
DESTROY DESTROY

Each Analytics Framework message may have data sent with it. To see what data is sent with each event, please read the documentation for the Analytics Framework API.

Ad Configuration Parameters and Settings

With the Ad Manager Framework Ad Manager Framework for Player V4, configuration parameters and some page level settings are different from Player V3. If you don't have any page level overrides to Backlot settings, your ads will have full backwards compatibility.

General Ad Changes

The following global ad parameters are new in Player V4. See Configuring Ad Parameters for full descriptions of these parameters. The following ad parameters are not supported by Player V4.
Global Ad Parameters Not Supported by Player V4 Player V4 Equivalent
showInAdControlBar Modify skin.json to modify ad control bar functionality. This applies to the FreeWheel ad plugin and the VAST and VPAID plugin when rendering VAST 2.0 or VAST 3.0 ads.
showAdMarquee For the Google IMA ad plugin, this parameter will be ignored. It will not display the ad control bar for ads unless you use the page level override (showAdControls) for the plugin. Google provides its own UI and this prevents our UI from obscuring it. For the VAST and VPAID plugin, rendering VPAID 2.0 ads, the ad control also is forcibly set to off. This is done to avoid blocking ad interactivity.

With the new Ad Manager Framework, ad manager plugins are used to integrate ad managers with the player. For Google IMA, VAST, FreeWheel, VPAID, and any other ad manager, you must load the ad manager plugin in the HTML page (for example, ad_manager_vast.min.js) before the player is created for the ad integration to work for your player.

Google IMA-Specific Changes

You no longer load Google IMA ads on the page with: 
"google-ima-ads-manager": {
          "adTagUrl": "yourAdTagUrl"    
        }
Ad tags are now wrapped in an array, and adTagUrl has been renamed tag_url. See Integrating Google IMA Ads for full details on how to implement Google IMA ads.
The following IMA-specific parameters are not supported by Player V4:
IMA Parameters Not Supported by Player V4 Player V4 Equivalent
adTagUrl Use tag_url. See Integrating Google IMA Ads for full details on how to implement Google IMA ads.
useStyledNonLinearAds No Player V4 equivalent.
showInAdControlBar This parameter is deprecated globally and for this ad manager. For the Google IMA ad plugin, the ad control bar configurations in skin.json are ignored (and are forcibly set to off) to avoid blocking ad interactivity.
showAdMarquee For the Google IMA ad plugin, the ad marquee configurations in skin.json are ignored (and are forcibly set to off) to avoid blocking ad interactivity.
playWhenAdClick Use the pauseAdOnClick global parameter.
adRequestTimeout Use the adLoadTimeout global parameter
The following table compares which ad positions are supported in Player V4 (HTML5 players and mobile SDKs for iOS and Android) and Player V3 (HTML players and mobile SDKs for iOS and Android).
Supported Ad Position Player V4 Player V3
Pre-Roll ✔ ✔
Mid-Roll ✔ ✔
Post-Roll ✔ ✔
Podded ✔ ✔
Skippable ✔ ✔
Clickthrough ✔ ✔
Overlay ✔  
Companion ✔  

Freewheel-specific Changes

The following table compares which ad positions are supported in Player V4 (HTML5 players and mobile SDKs for iOS and Android) and Player V3 (HTML players and mobile SDKs for iOS and Android).
Supported Ad Position Player V4 Player V3
Pre-Roll ✔ ✔
Mid-Roll ✔  
Post-Roll ✔ ✔
Podded ✔  
Skippable ✔  
Clickthrough ✔ ✔
Overlay ✔  

VAST-specific Changes

The vastAds parameter is not currently supported with the new VAST plugin. See Integrating VAST and VPAID Ads for details about VAST ad integration.

VPAID-Specific Changes

VAST and VPAID ad integration functionality is now combined in one plugin. See Integrating VAST and VPAID Ads for details about VAST and VPAID ad integration. The following VPAID-specific parameters are not supported by Player V4:
VPAID Parameters Not Supported by Player V4 Player V4 Equivalent
vpaid-ads-manager Use vast-ads-manager. See Integrating VAST and VPAID Ads for full details on how to implement VPAID ads.
adLayout No Player V4 equivalent.
adTag Use tag_url. See Integrating VAST and VPAID Ads for full details on how to implement VPAID ads.
showAdMarquee For the VAST and VPAID plugin rendering VPAID 2.0 ads, the ad marquee configurations in skin.json are ignored (and are forcibly set to off) to avoid blocking ad interactivity.
showInAdControlBar For the VAST and VPAID plugin rendering VPAID 2.0 ads, the ad control bar configurations in skin.json are ignored (and are forcibly set to off) to avoid blocking ad interactivity.
playWhenAdClick Use the pauseAdOnClick global parameter.

LiveRail-Specific Changes

Player V4 supports LiveRail VAST ad tags through the VAST and VPAID plugin. See Integrating VAST and VPAID Ads for details about the VAST and VPAID ad integration.

The VAST and VPAID plugin supports LiveRail ad tag URLs that are VAST XML. This correlates to the LiveRail (VAST) Overlay and LiveRail (VAST) In-Stream ad set types in Backlot.

Note: The VAST and VPAID plugin does not support LiveRail ads that do not use the VAST XML format.
The following LiveRail-specific parameters are not supported by Player V4:
LiveRail Parameters Not Supported by Player V4 Player V4 Equivalent
liverail-ads-manager Use vast-ads-manager. See Integrating VAST and VPAID Ads for full details on how to implement VAST ads.
LR_PUBLISHER_ID No Player V4 equivalent.
LR_PARTNERS No Player V4 equivalent.
LR_TAGS Use tag_url for the LiveRail VAST ad tag. See Integrating VAST and VPAID Ads for full details on how to implement VPAID ads.
LR_ADMAP No Player V4 equivalent.

Other JavaScript API Changes

In addition to the changes described above, this section describes changes in the Player JavaScript API for Player V4.

Embedded Parameters

In Player V4, there are some changes to the embedded parameters (called "page-level parameters" in Player V4) that you pass to the OO.Player.create() method. See Page-level Parameters for Player V4 for full descriptions of supported embedded parameters.

New Embedded Parameters in V4. The following parameters are among those that have been added in Player V4:

For a complete list, see Page-level Parameters for Player V4.

Embedded Parameters Not Supported in V4. Certain Player V3 parameters are no longer supported in Player V4, including (but not limited to) the following:

Global Parameters Not Supported by Player V4 Player V4 Equivalent
Embedded Parameters  
in-stream No Player V4 equivalent.
locale Modify skin.json to modify localization of the Player UI. See Setting the Language for the Ooyala Player for details.
prebuffering No Player V4 equivalent.
tvRatingsPosition No Player V4 equivalent.
tvRatingsTimer No Player V4 equivalent.
useFirstVideoFromPlaylist No Player V4 equivalent.
enableChannels No Player V4 equivalent.
showInAdControlBar Modify skin.json to modify ad control bar functionality. This applies to the FreeWheel ad plugin and the VAST and VPAID plugin when rendering VAST 2.0 or VAST 3.0 ads.
showAdMarquee For the Google IMA ad plugin, this parameter will be ignored. It will not display the ad control bar for ads unless you use the page level override (showAdControls) for the plugin. Google provides its own UI and this prevents our UI from obscuring it. For the VAST and VPAID plugin, rendering VPAID 2.0 ads, the ad control also is forcibly set to off. This is done to avoid blocking ad interactivity.
Custom Module Parameters  
devModuleCategory No Player V4 equivalent.
devModuleURL No Player V4 equivalent.
hide No Player V4 equivalent.
layout No Player V4 equivalent.
thruParam_dev-other No Player V4 equivalent.

Query String Parameters

Player V3 query string parameters (namespace, platform, and tweaks) are not applicable in Player V4.

Player Events

Player events have changed between Player V3 and Player V4.
Deprecated Player Event. The following Player V3 event has been deprecated in Player V4, and will not work. Ooyala has removed this event.
  • SET_TARGET_BITRATE_QUALITY
New Player Events. The following events are among those that have been added in Player V4. You can see detailed event descriptions at docs.brightcove.com/apidocs-ooyala/.
  • BITRATE_INFO_AVAILABLE
  • BITRATE_CHANGED
  • SET_TARGET_BITRATE
  • SET_CLOSED_CAPTIONS_LANGUAGE
  • CLOSED_CAPTIONS_INFO_AVAILABLE
Parent topic: Migrating to Player V4