Why Transparency in Engineering Matters
April 11, 2019We’ve all been there – small engineering team, everyone sits in the same room, communication […]
We know the challenges and amount of work required to play HLS & MPEG-DASH streams smoothly across all the different browsers, operating systems and devices. DRM makes it even more complicated.
Compatibility across all platforms is a goal we strive for. It’s much more than just the web player. We have developed SDKs for Android, iOS, tvOS, Roku and SmartTVs as well as desktop apps to help to deliver video to your users, regardless of which platform they are using.
DRM made streaming a lot more complicated, so we have worked hard to make it simpler again. Bitmovin supports Widevine, Primetime, PlayReady, Fairplay and AES HLS, plus we have a range of DRM and Multi-DRM integrations ready to go including BuyDRM, Irdeto, ExpressPlay and more.
We understand that monetization is critical to any business model, so easy to integrate advertising solutions has always been a high priority. Solutions are available for Server-Side Ad Insertion, as well as client-side VAST, VPAID, Google IMA, VMAP and more.
Your development team will have complete control over your players interface either through the API or through a unified configuration file that ensures your interface is consistent across web based browsers, iOS, Android and desktop applications.
We know how difficult it can be to maintain 3rd party integrations through changes to your architecture. The Bitmovin player has a range of existing integrations including: Mux, Conviva, Akamai, Irdeto, ExpressPlay, EZDRM, Google IMA / DFP and much more.
Whether it’s a live sporting event, or a delay-sensitive interactive experience, delay in playback of the the video stream can get in the way of the user experience. Online video streaming and playback have faced constant challenges due to the buffering behavior of web streaming protocols like HLS and MPEG-DASH - until now.
We have implemented modern protocols like chunked CMAF, available on the Bitmovin Player across leading consumer devices and browsers, to achieve 2 - 3 sec latencies, to achieve parity and exceed performance available today in traditional TV video distribution.
Bitmovin has always supported a plugin free Internet and that is why we have developed our web player to run natively in HTML5. Due to the usage of standardized browser interfaces playback of adaptive video streams is possible without the needs for plugins, like Flash or Silverlight - even for DRM use cases.
Our HTML5 Player is backed up by professional support from the team that co-created the MPEG-DASH standard.
Based on a deep down understanding of adaptive video streaming clients, we developed our HTML5 player completely in-house, without making use of third party implementations. This enables us to and ensure an easy and painless integration while providing a highly customizable solution to our customers.
Our HTML5 Adaptive Video Player works on all common browsers and devices. The usage of browser components, like the Media Source Extensions (MSE) and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), makes it possible to deliver a truly user friendly solution on desktop, mobile, SmartTVs and other HTML5 based streaming devices.
The same UI and player configuration as for the web based player can be used also for our native SDKs to provide a consistent presentation and user experience across all devices. We took great care to provide a consistent player API for all our players.
The native SDKs support the same API methods and player events as the web based player. Getting started with developing applications using our SDKs is fairly easy. Just a few lines of code enable rich media playback for your mobile native apps.
There are a few quick steps you need to take before you get started with the Bitmovin Player SDK.
Check out our demo applications in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. You can test your own streams there or just choose one of our sample streams to try out all the features our SDKs are providing.
Our SDKs support offline playback of unprotected and DRM protected content. We provide an easy-to-use API to handle the complete lifecycle of media content which is stored offline.
| Device | DASH Web Based | DASH Native SDK | HLS Web Based | HLS Native SDK |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chromecast |  |
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| Apple TV |  3 |
3 |
via AirPlay | |
| Amazon FireTV | |
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| Android TV | |
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| LG TVs 7 | |
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 |
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| Samsung TVs 8 | |
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| XBox One S/X & UWP | |
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| Roku | |
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Bitmovin’s Web based and native SDKs share a unified UI, configuration and API which ensures a consistent presentation and user experience across all devices and platforms. In contrast to desktop browsers, ‘Autoplay’ works only when muted on mobile browsers, due to a restriction from the Operating Systems.
1 Supported on Chrome and Firefox for Android 4.0+
2 Supported on Android 4.1+
3 Prohibited by a restriction from Apple
4 Supported on iOS 3+
5 Supported on iOS 8+
6 Supported on Windows Phone 8+
7 Supported on LG TVs 2017+
8 Supported on Samsung TVs 2017+
| Browser / Device | Streaming Format | DRM | Bitmovin Player Support |
|---|---|---|---|
| Android | DASH HTML5 | Native | Widevine Modular | |
| iOS | HLS HTML5 | Native | AES HLS, FairPlay 1 | |
| Windows | DASH HTML5 | PlayReady | |
| Chromecast | DASH HTML5 | Widevine Modular, PlayReady | |
| Apple TV | HLS Native | Fairplay | |
| Android TV | DASH Native | Widevine Modular | |
| LG TVs 2 | DASH HTML5 | Widevine Modular, PlayReady | |
| Samsung TVs 3 | DASH HTML5 | PlayReady | |
| XBox One S/X & UWP | DASH HTML5 | PlayReady | |
| Roku | MPEG-DASH | HLS | PlayReady | AES-128 | |
1 works in Safari with 11.2.1+
2 Supported on LG TVs 2016+
3 Supported on Samsung TVs 2016+
supported
restricted by platform
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At Bitmovin we believe that product features and improvements should be developed to meet our customers needs. A close relationship with our customer base and open and ongoing communication guides our development roadmap.
