Video.js v10 is a ground-up rewrite combining four open source players into one modern framework — 88% smaller default bundles, first-class React and TypeScript support, composable architecture, and beautiful new skins designed by Plyr's creator.
Video.js 6.0 introduces advanced plugins with class-based architecture reminiscent of components, featuring lifecycle management through dispose events, React-inspired statefulness, evented communication channels, and player awareness methods hasPlugin and usingPlugin.
Video.js 5.0 features a completely redesigned UI with flex-box controls, ES6 codebase compiled with Babel, switched from Less to Sass, and represents 146 merged pull requests from 25 contributors updating nearly every line of code.
Video.js 4.7.0 marks a community milestone with over half the changes from new contributors, Google selects Video.js for their Media Framework with IMA integration, localization infrastructure launches, and Team Coco adopts the player with custom branding.
Brightcove hackweek produces MPEG-DASH support for Video.js by combining Dash.js and Dash.as implementations, enabling adaptive streaming across browsers through Media Source Extensions and Flash fallback, though iOS support remains unavailable.
Video.js 4.6.0 delivers major UX improvements with live streaming UI, clearer error messaging, IE11 fullscreen support, optional playback rate controls, and Addy Osmani's Polymer element integration showcasing vibrant community contributions.
Video.js 4.5.0 streamlines the release process for faster delivery, adds Component(1) package manager support, fixes caption positioning when controls hide, and enables Android HLS detection while improving GitHub issue response times.
Video.js 4.4.0 introduces AMD and CommonJS module support for RequireJS and Browserify, enables NPM installation with upcoming Bower and Component support, and debuts five new community plugins including The Onion's endcard solution.
Video.js 4.3.0 debuts automatically-generated API documentation using Esprima's abstract syntax tree parsing, adds centered big play button option, introduces new loading spinner styles, and showcases growing plugin ecosystem with 26 community contributions.
Video.js 4.2.2 fixes two critical bugs including a Firefox race condition during video loading that broke playback and an issue where duration would get stuck at 0:00 when loading the player dynamically.
Video.js CDN files were compromised for three hours with malware from the Sendori Auto-update Hack, prompting immediate security fixes including restricted CDN access, third-party monitoring, and defined incident response processes to prevent future attacks.
Video.js 4.2.0 adds beta RTMP streaming support for Flash, updates the CSS skin designer, implements major control bar improvements, and introduces LESS preprocessing to the default skin for enhanced customization.
Video.js introduces a userActive state system to intelligently show and hide player controls across desktop and touch devices, enabling controls to fade out in fullscreen mode and respond properly to mobile gestures without relying on mouse events.
Brightcove hack week produces an interactive Video.js skin designer that enables real-time CSS customization using LESS preprocessing, demonstrating how HTML/CSS skins work across both HTML5 and Flash playback.
Video.js 4.1.0 ships with method queuing for Flash fallback, improved component APIs with fadeIn/fadeOut exports, enhanced user agent detection for Android, and multiple bug fixes for IE and captions.
Video.js 4.0 delivers an 18% size reduction through Google Closure Compiler, automated cross-browser testing with TravisCI and BrowserStack, a new plugin interface, redesigned font-based icon skin, improved accessibility, and Apache 2.0 licensing.
Video.js source code repository moves from github.com/zencoder/video-js to github.com/videojs/video.js in preparation for version 4.0, with existing forks and pull requests remaining intact.
Video.js transitions to full-time development and modernizes its support infrastructure by moving from custom forums to Stack Overflow for questions, GitHub Issues for bug tracking, and Trello for project management transparency.
Brightcove acquires Zencoder, ensuring Video.js remains free and open source while gaining full-time dedicated development from creator Steve Heffernan and collaboration with Brightcove's world-class player development team.
Video.js 3.2 debuts a new video tag builder tool, completely overhauls HTML5 track support with WebVTT format compatibility, enables chapter navigation, and makes API methods accessible earlier through call caching before player readiness.
Video.js 3.1 introduces experimental iframe mode for Flash to solve Firefox reload bugs, replaces swfobject with custom embedding to reduce file size, and improves fullscreen support with CSS fixes for Firefox 9.
Video.js 3.0 launches with a unified HTML/CSS skin for both HTML5 and Flash playback, a lightweight Flash fallback player, and free CDN hosting by Level3 for improved performance and accessibility.
Video.js creator Steve Heffernan announces the release of his comprehensive HTML5 video tutorial series on Lynda.com, offering developers professional training on modern web video implementation.
Video.js creator Steve Heffernan reaches out to the community to discover how developers are implementing the HTML5 video player across different websites and use cases.
MPEG LA calls for patents to create a licensing pool around Google's WebM/VP8 codec, potentially threatening the open-source format's royalty-free status and complicating the HTML5 video format landscape.
iOS 4.3 beta brings AirPlay streaming to Mobile Safari, allowing HTML5 videos to stream directly from iPhone and iPad to Apple TV by adding a simple x-webkit-airplay attribute to video tags.
Google announces it will remove H.264 support from Chrome to back open-source video formats, making Chrome the first browser to drop the proprietary codec despite it being widely supported across Apple and Microsoft platforms.
HTML5 video reaches a turning point as browser support surpasses 50% of web users in early 2011, driven largely by Firefox and Chrome adoption, though the MP4/h.264 vs WebM/VP8 format war continues to complicate widespread adoption.
Mozilla showcases creative HTML5 video capabilities with an Indiana Jones-inspired demo that synchronizes video playback with animated route visualization on Google Maps in real-time.
Video.js 2.0.2 delivers performance improvements with a completely rewritten subtitle parser, fixes a Safari fullscreen bug on Mac OS X Leopard, and adds volume range validation to prevent playback issues.
Video.js 2.0.0 introduces a groundbreaking "behaviors" system for creating custom controls, unified APIs for HTML5 and Flash fallback players, configurable fallback order, and switches from list-based to div-based controls for better style portability.
John Gruber demonstrates how to access HTML5 video in Safari by masquerading as Mobile Safari, revealing how many sites unnecessarily require Flash when they already support HTML5 video for iOS devices.
Video.js 1.1.5 introduces HTML5 track element support for WebSRT subtitles, adds a pluggable players system for defining fallback order, fixes Android playback issues, and includes a major code reorganization for better maintainability.
The most notable update in this version is a loading indicator spinner, for when the video is buffering or seeking.
Version 1.1.3 introduces a big play button on first load to fix Safari bugs, adds width/height functions for player resizing, and includes improvements to control bar behavior and event handling.
Facebook introduces HTML5 video for iPhone and iPad playback as part of their mobile HTML5 implementation, though Flash still outperforms HTML5 on other mobile browsers at this early stage.
Video.js 1.1.2 fixes critical iOS 3 bugs on iPad and iPhone where poster attributes and JavaScript placement broke video playback, using a new approach to programmatically set video sources and trigger loading.
Initial testing confirms Video.js is compatible with the Internet Explorer 9 preview, successfully rendering controls and playback despite IE's historical CSS layout challenges.
Video.js unveils a completely redesigned website built with HTML5 semantic elements and modern CSS techniques, featuring a new blog and Twitter account for project updates and HTML5 video news.