Player v8.34.5 introduces two new UI/UX features and addresses a player behavior bug.

New Features

• New methods for converting color names and creating DOM elements have been implemented, which improve player performance.
• The player now supports localization for the following language: Chinese (Taiwan) (code: zh-tw).

Bug Fix

• Autopause and pause behaviors are now respected when the player is not viewable.

Dynamic Strategy Rules are now available to help you enhance viewer experience, boost audience engagement, and increase monetization with minimal developer resources.

New Feature

Dynamic Strategy Rules offer various benefits to help you construct viewer experiences and monetization strategies.

Key Benefits:

• Dynamic Personalization: Automatically route viewers to personalized video experiences based on visit context, geography, and custom values.
• Effortless Updates: Manage and implement strategy changes directly from your JWP dashboard, impacting multiple sites without additional coding.
• Minimal Code Deployment: Easily deploy Dynamic Strategy Rules with minimal coding required.
• Improved Engagement: Optimize on-page video placements to increase user engagement and conversions.
• Maximized Revenue: Gain granular control over advertising to maximize revenue potential.

Contact your JWP representative to get started with Dynamic Strategy Rules.

With the 4.18.2 Android release, several issues relating to casting and DVR windows have been addressed.

Bug Fixes

• Content playback begins after a cast connection is established.
• Streams with large DVR windows and numerous timed meta tags play smoothly after the initial load.
• Both side-loaded .vtt captions and the scrub bar display during casting.

With iOS SDK 4.19.2 the JWPlayerViewControllerDelegate has been replaced by several new delegates, the fullscreen exit button can be hidden, and several bugs relating to chapter markers, seeking functionality, and Google ads have been addressed.

New Features

• The JWPlayerViewControllerDelegate has been deprecated in favor of the following new separated delegates: JWPlayerViewControllerFullScreenDelegate, JWPlayerViewControllerUIDelegate, and JWPlayerViewControllerRelatedDelegate.
• The SDK silently fails when only portrait is enabled and rotation is not supported.
• The exit fullscreen button (the "X" button) can be hidden.

Bug Fixes

• When an empty chapter marker(.vtt) file is provided, the app throws an error without crashing.
• The indicator moves to the specified location when seeking through a video.
• Seeking and fetching the thumbnail cues no longer causes a crash.
• Google ads now include all expected query parameters in the ad request.

In this release, several FreeWheel and Google PPS fixes have been released.

Bug Fixes

• The FreeWheel Plugin correctly sets the mode to ad request when the stream is live.
• Mute and unmute behavior in FreeWheel ad pods is now reflected correctly.
• Google Publisher Provided Signals (PPS) values are sent and encoded properly.

The JW Platform now enables you to playback media with Digital Rights Management (DRM) encryption in your DRM-enabled properties. 

New Feature

You can now preview DRM-encrypted video-on-demand (VOD) media hosted in your DRM-enabled properties.

• Playback of VOD DRM media will leverage the Low Default DRM Policy. Any changes made to the policy may cause playback failure in the dashboard. 
• You may experience initial playback latency of VOD DRM media in the dashboard.

The JW Platform now enables you to translate content titles, descriptions, and other fields displayed in your app. 

New Feature

Content metadata provides viewers information about a media item, such as the title, description, and genre. From the dashboard, you can add and manage metadata translations in any language. 

Metadata translations offer several benefits:

• Expanding to a global market of viewer groups
• Improving user experience in the native languages of viewers (requires custom implementation)
• Increasing revenue opportunities through language support

The dashboard now offers new iterations of the captions and chapters editors. 

New Feature

The captions and chapters editors have been redesigned for a more intuitive flow to enhance performance and user experience. 

This latest JWP Android SDK release improves .playlistUrl support, caption scaling, player setup with .useTextureView(true), DAI event handling, and IMA ad playback.

Bug Fixes

• A .playlistUrl can be used with the Background Audio Service in a PlayerConfig.
• Captions scale correctly in full-screen portrait mode.
• The player no longer crashes on setup when configured with TextureView .useTextureView(true).
• When using DAI, the onAdPause and onAdPlay events fire only once.
• If an app implementing a player configured with .useTextureView(true) defined is backgrounded during IMA ad playback, video and audio ad playback continue after returning to the app.

We have updated the user experience for managing audio tracks, enabling you to easily edit default track information. 

New Feature

From the dashboard, you can now edit the name, language, and ISO language code of default audio tracks for both DRM and non-DRM media.