When I go to m.youtube.com on my iPhone (Chrome) to watch videos, I assume that YouTube is using the HTML5 <video> tag to display them.
However, when I watch a video with a commercial, dragging the seek button makes it jump back to it's original position before the seek. In other words, it is impossible to control your position in the commercial.
It feels like a violation of the divide between browser content and the browser. This isn't a native app, it is a website. How are the iOS video control elements being manipulated by HTML? It seems that this should be impossible, just like it should be impossible for a webpage to access a phone's photos or switch applications.
If it's running inline in the browser, the site will have full script access to the controls - and it's very standard nowadays to prevent skipping/changing the playhead during ads. Some even get rid of the controls completely.
Though HTML5 video is a native browser function, it's still subject to javascript hooks. All one has to do is add return false to the onChangePlayhead event to lock the controls down. It's only when you remove the video from inline web and bring it into the native iOS app that it becomes untouchable by scripts.
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I am building a mobile web app that will integrate with a live video stream. The streaming stuff is all handled by a third party so I don't need to worry about that aspect.
What I get from the third party is an iFrame/video element to drop onto the page. I am curious if there is a way to have this video play in the background while the user can interact with a UI over top.
I am aware of the limitations involving mobile browsers and autoplay, so I know that at the very least the user will need to initiate an action. I am just worried that the native video player will pop up and the UI will be hidden beneath it.
So my primary question would be is this even possible?
A little google search would have given you an answer
http://thenewcode.com/777/Create-Fullscreen-HTML5-Page-Background-Video
My research tells me that there is now way to escape fullscreen video viewing in iOS browsers on iPhone or iTouch. It also seems there there is no way to modify the native controls that are displayed along with the video. Is the user in a total blackbox while viewing video in this case?
I'm trying to find someway for a user to indicate that they like a video as it is playing. Is there anything I can do that isn't a hack? If not is there any indication from Apple that they will ever be willing to change this? I'd rather not make an app out of this project.
You actually can play a video in line on an iOS browser, if this is what you are aiming for although there are restrictions - updated answer:
Play video inline in a browser on iOS
Safari on large screen iOS (iPad) should support inline video (I don't have iPAD hand to verify this still works...).
Safari on 'small screen' iOS (i.e. iPhone) will not support inline video as standard. There is at least one workaround which will allow it but this does bypass much of the native video playback performance gains so it may not meet your needs. It is a work in progress still as you will see from the link, but try the demo on an iPhone browser - you need to hit the small play button beside the video, rather than the one on top of the video at the time of writing:
https://github.com/newshorts/InlineVideo
Playing inline in a UIWebView on iOS
Take a look at this Apple Developer page:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIWebView_Class/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006950-CH3-SW31
In particular:
allowsInlineMediaPlayback
A Boolean value that determines whether HTML5 videos play inline or use the native full-screen controller.
and:
Discussion
The default value on iPhone is NO.
In order for video to play inline, not only does this property need to be set on the view, but the video element in the HTML document must also include the webkit-playsinline attribute.
I'm trying to find a way of knowing when a Youtube video on an iPhone enters/exists fullscreen inside an HTML page. I am using Safari Mobile, not a UIWebView, the videos automatically go fullscreen as soon as they start playing.
Being obviously not on the youtube.com domain I cannot bind the webkitbeginfullscreen and webkitbendfullscreen on the <video> element within the iframe.
Is there any technique, even hacks, allowing me to query the video fullscreen state?
I think you'd have to detect iPhone or iPod user agent and then if the time changed on the video (via YouTube Javascript API) then you would have to assume it was playing.
Although, that only gets you equivalent beginfullscreen event reliably.
I have created a web page that auto plays a full screen background video.
On top of the video is a div that contains text & a link to an external site - this works fine in all desktop browsers.
How do i recreate the same setup to play on mobile devices - would I need to use javascript in order to achieve this?
I have spent many hours trawling google for a definitive answer and am now very confused.
Thanks in advance.
Autoplay for HTML5 video is not allowed on mobile devices such as iOS or Android. You can read this for the whys and hows on iOS.
On iPhone the video plays in the default (fullscreen) Quicktime player. So there is no real background notion (this could be accomplished in a native app where inline playback of video is allowed but not in the Safari/web browser). You would need to stick to an image I guess.
On the iPad or on Android in order to accomplish what you want you will need to bind your video tag to a touch event/button (like when a user 'touch' to enter your site), and on this event initiate the play sequence for the video (in your case the video being set to occupy the full width and height of the viewport).
Thanks
I am writing a web app that uses HTML5 audio. I want to make sure that the user can move to a different application while still listening to the audio in the background. This works while the web app is still within Safari itself. However, when the user adds the web app to their homescreen and it has been set to allow for fullscreen access (no Safari toolbars), when they leave the app the audio does not continue to play. Does anyone know of any way to have a web app proceed while in the background?
Thanks.
I observe exactly the same thing. It's really puzzling as to why Safari, webkit on iOS I suppose really, handles it differently in the two cases.
I notice one thing that might be a small clue, when running as a home-screen'ed 'app' when you playback the audio the iOS status bar (at least on my ios4.1/iphone4) does NOT show playback indicator (blue triangle). But when using the site directly via Safari (and the sound stays in the backgroun as expected) it DOES show the playback indicator.
I think the only people who can probably answer your question are apple since it's their webkit implementation. If you haven't already I would urge you to take this up on the apple developer message boards.
For others not familiar the 'full screen access' Dan is referring to is a Safari specific meta tag that enables a bookmarked web page to open in safari 'full screen' without the location and menu bars.
While HTML5 is making progress on supporting device native features through HTML 5 APIs (such as accelerometers, etc) having true background audio seems like it hasn't really been spec'ed out yet. By background I mean when the browser is not the application that the user is currently focused on. It was only more recently that iOS even supported application multitasking which is what making the behavior from safari possible but it's a separate thing together to integrate that tightly with the OS'es native audio control features, which is what would need to happen.
This is not possible, at least not currently. You are playing the audio from the browser and when the browser closes the system kills the app, or freezes it, unless it has multi-tasking support(but that isn't allowed for web apps)
In iOS 5 and Android 4.0.3, putting a browser window to background does not stop playback. I am not sure about other versions prior to them.
You can do so with an iPhone 4. On my website, I posted a song with the simple html5 tag and I went on it with the iPhone 4. Played the song, left the app. Song runs in the background and there is even a play button on the top bar like when you listen to music on the iPod app.