Google’s HTML5 Video Player, Shaka Player is for Low Bandwidth Conditions
Google developers are quietly working on an HTML5 video player, known as Shaka Player that can function on bandwidth involving low internet connections.
Not more than a simple JavaScript library, Shaka Player can be used with projects that are compatible with HTML5.
Basically a DASH client, the library once started after loading, lets videos to be played automatically depending on the user’s local internet bandwidth conditions.
DASH stands for Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP. It is a technology that can break up video content into smaller HTTP units and only the ones needed for immediate playback are allowed to be downloaded by a client.
As the DASH client downloads the video stream data and transmits it to the video player, the following HTTP packages are automatically brought forth, neglecting content that has been omitted by the user.
A DASH client will always make an attempt to first download the highest quality package, as DASH-encoded video streams are available at different bitrates (quality). However, it will go back to lower resolution streams, if the network conditions stop it.
For instance, the Vimeo and YouTube video players use DASH to adjust automatically to the user’s bandwidth in actual time.
Google has developed an open source Shaka Player to help programmers put DASH technology into effect with HTML5, as DASH is very hard to implement.
While player ironically handles only the client-side part of a DASH implementation, the Shaka Player documentation does have links to tutor how to get started and prepare package video content for DASH-enabled streams.
Shaka Player is up for grabs on GitHub. You can also play around with a demo as well.
