Player E Live Features

In this topic, you will learn about features for Player E when playing live events, and live events with DVR.

Introduction

You can choose the player used in your Beacon apps. Player E is the latest player, and eventually all new customers automatically get Player E. Also, eventually all existing customers will move to Player E.

Player E is a player for VOD videos, linear channels and live events in which viewers watch media assets. The player incorporates many new features across all platforms. This topic details features available, and not available, for live content and the DVR feature.

The following two documents demonstrate how to select Player E for your apps, and features Player E offers for playback of VOD content:

Feature availability table

As mentioned earlier, Player E has many new features, but not every feature is available on every platform. The following table indicates which features are available on which platforms for live content. The N/A signifies Not Applicable.

Web iOS Apple TV Android Roku Smart TVs
Skip 10 seconds
Forward/
Back1		 Not Applicable Yes Not Applicable Yes Not Applicable Not Applicable
Playback
Speed
Selection		 Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable
Audio
Language4		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Subtitles Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Air
Play		 Yes5 Yes Yes Not Applicable Not Applicable6 Not Applicable
Chromecast Yes7 Yes Not Applicable Yes Not Applicable Not Applicable
Related8 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Thumbnail
Scrubbing		 Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable
Accessibility Yes Not Applicable Not Applicable10 Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable
Fullscreen option Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
  1. Platforms that do not show the skip buttons have native methods for this functionality.
  2. LG/webOS does not support playback speed selection.
  3. For Smart TVs, outside of LG/webOS, the video must be enabled for playback speed selection.
  4. Of course, the additional languages must be provided in the video and/or video's manifest.
  5. On web app, works with Safari only.
  6. Native support, but untested with Beacon.
  7. On web app, works with Google Chrome only.
  8. When a video is playing, related displays related videos. When an episode of a series is playing, related displays the other episodes from the same season.
  9. Can be enabled through a request.
  10. Native accessibility is available and voice control via Siri.

Live features

The following video demonstrates features available when playing Live video assets in Player E for OTT web apps.

 

In the video the channels are displayed in a vertical list. It is considered a best practice to use the grid if you have greater than 12 channels. Here is an example channel grid display:

channel grid layout

Live DVR features

The following are features of Live DVR:

  • Viewers can pause, play fast forward and rewind
  • Viewers will be able to forward through already watched ads when in DVR mode.
  • If a viewer has rewound using the DVR functionality, then jumps to live, the viewer is not shown ads that have been skipped.
  • Video with DRM can support Live DVR. Note that DRM is only supported on DVR without SSAI.
  • There is 24 hour DVR support for videos without SSAI.
  • There is 2 hour DVR support for videos with SSAI.

The following video demonstrates features available when playing Live DVR video assets in Player E for OTT web apps.