JW Player Error loading media: File could not be played

Question

We ran into a very strange problem with JW Player and really don't know an approach to solve it.

JW Player shows the error:

Error loading media: File could not be played

sporadically across all browsers and platforms (sometimes it shows up and sometimes not). It took me over 30 reloads to get it and some of my colleagues got it with their first try. It's behavior is very inconsistent and kind of random.

We're using FirstSpirit as CMS on an Apache Tomcat instance running on Windows server. The problem occurred on Chrome, IE and Firefox across all versions.

The MIME types of all videos are correct as their codecs are. If supported, JW Player is running in HTML5 mode. We use Flash only for older browsers (IE8 groan).

I would appreciate any help. Thanks!

Marcus

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UPDATE: Example page with video box on the right side. Example page with video

UPDATE: We updated the version as Ethan from JW Player suggested, but it's still not working properly.

Sesquipedalian

A link to your site would help. Sounds like a basic server problem, however, or some sort of timing issue with the CMS. – Allembracing

Added a link in my question – Sesquipedalian

For 2nd try it started for me. (It's about the assembly of an engine.) In another private window it did not start... – Bestride

I would advise upgrading from 6.3 to 6.12 - account.jwplayer.com – Sociopath

Hello Ethan. We updated our version but the error is still occurring. Any suggestions? – Sesquipedalian

I am not able to reproduce this , the video is working for me – Debrief

It took me several (30+) tries to reproduce it. – Sesquipedalian

@MarcusRommel did you ever resolve this? I am having the same issue and came across your question in my search for answers. We are using 6.12.4956 – Crooks

@Crooks sry for my late answer. Unfortunately we've never resolved the issue. – Sesquipedalian

@MarcusRommel : From your example http://www.us.mahle.com/mahle_north_america/en/products-and-services/passenger-cars/oil-management/oil-filter-modules/ - Whenever you see the error Can you also check if Video URL /global/media/global_news/videos/3d-animations/mahle_oelfilter_pin_h264_web800.mp4 is working or not seperatly. From Jwplayer site support.jwplayer.com/customer/portal/articles/… , this error occurs for wrong format But you seems to providing correct format, so this error does not make sense ... let me know if video url works, when error shown. – Debrief

@Crooks : What kind of issue you are facing, have you added any question in SO, please share the link – Debrief

@Matthew I am also getting this kind of issue and the issue is Uploaded video is not playing in JW player as Getting message like this "Error loading media: File could not be played" and Its happen sudden. – Rhadamanthus

worked for me on the first try. JWPlayer is now at 7.11.0. – Detonator

I was unable to find an error despite multiple refreshes However if the video loads and doesnt load, I would agree with a much earlier comment that it may be server related – Phycomycete

Answer 1

I would suggest to encode the video in .mp4 and .ogg. (MP4 is supported in Safari and IE9, Ogg in Firefox, Chrome and Opera and as you mentioned IE6-8 uses flash only). Thus your video element will look something like:

<video width="300" controls>
  <source src="my_video.ogg" type="video/ogg">
  <source src="my_video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
  Your browser does not support HTML5 video.
</video>

This will ensure that the video will be played if the browser support HTML5. I hope this helps

Menthol