Non-MSE playback with Cobalt browser

Ranjit Velpuri

unread,

Jun 2, 2021, 5:46:49 AM6/2/21

to cobalt-dev

Hi All,

Happy to be part of the group.

I have come across statements like

Media Source Extensions (MSE) is a W3C specification that allows JavaScript to send byte streams to media codecs within Web browsers that support HTML5 video and audio.

YouTube started using MSE with its HTML5 player in September 2013

Currently, I am exploring the feasibility of passing on video content URL from application to native player or starboard layer by cobalt browser instead of following MSE concept.

Got to know that <video> tag is used for the same purpose by webkit browser.

Though Cobalt / Cobalt Support Quick Reference says that <video> element is supported by cobalt, I am not able to find out a way in using it so that the URL is passed on to player.

When tried with following sample app, able to make out from the logs that video file is getting parsed, buffer management is happening etc etc. which may fall into MSE context itself:

<html>

<body>

</body>

</html>

Can anyone please share some pointers on how to configure or validate non-MSE path with cobalt.

Or Is it not supported and have to add the functionality in multiple modules?

fyi: my environment is Cobalt version 22.master.0 on ubuntu-18.04.5.

Thanks in Advance for your support.

Thanks and Best Regards,

Ranjit.

Wlodzimierz Lipert

unread,

Jun 2, 2021, 5:51:00 AM6/2/21

to Ranjit Velpuri, cobalt-dev

Ranjit,

You are interested in so called "progressive" video (HTML video tag
with URL to regular mp4 or other container file).
Please see:
https://ytlr-cert.appspot.com/2020/main.html?test_type=progressive-test
Its already supported in cobalt code.

> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "cobalt-dev" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobalt-dev+...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobalt-dev/bc29e61a-4cb9-4582-8937-f0628eda5e66n%40googlegroups.com.

--
BR/Pozdrawiam. Wlodzimierz Lipert

Ranjit Velpuri

unread,

Jun 7, 2021, 11:09:50 PM6/7/21

to cobalt-dev

Hi,

Thanks for the inputs.

I have executed progressive tests and most of them passed.

If my understanding is correct, it still looks like MSE related functionality is getting executed in cobalt code. (read content from URL, populate buffers and push for decoding as per debug logs).

My requirement is to have URL from Application to be passed onto starboard layer by cobalt for the lower layers to get content from server and process.

I am yet to understand current flow in detail using test App environment mentioned above and check feasibility of bypassing some functionality.

Meanwhile, if there are any other pointers to achieve above requirement either by enabling of disabling configuration flags if any, then please let me know.