Video thumbnails do not render on Internet Explorer 9, need better control over preload attributes [#1838820]

On IE9, the video poster attribute (used by Video to show pre-playback thumbnails) is not used if video preloading is enabled. Either preload="metadata" or preload="auto" will cause IE9 to ignore the video thumbnail and render a black square with controls. Additionally, if there are hidden videos (in our case, we have a View rendered using the Views Slideshow plugin that uses jQuery cycle) and they are set to auto or metadata preload, IE9 won't render them at all.

The only solution for IE9 is to set preload="none", in which case IE9 will dutifully use video posters even on hidden video elements. Currently we're using a workaround of putting the video-play-html5 template in our theme's template set and changing line 21 in that file to:

$preload = $autobuffering ? 'auto' : 'none';

This causes IE9 to render the video thumbnails correctly, at the expense of not having preloaded videos. A more robust solution would be the ability to select between auto, metadata, and none for the preload attribute instead of just auto and metadata. Or better yet, different preload behaviors for different browsers so making IE9 work doesn't make iPhones take longer to load things.

By the way, this particular behavior may not be reproducible. Some versions of IE9 (such as IE9 on Windows Server) don't have this issue, while others do. My boss had all of his machines with IE9 exhibiting this bug but none of the machines with IE9 I had would have this issue. So all I'm requesting is the ability for more fine-grained preload control.

Comments

Comment #1

brycefisherfleig CreditAttribution: brycefisherfleig commented 23 April 2014 at 17:32

Status:

Active

» Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

This issue is a bit old. Is it still an ongoing concern? If so, could you provide step-by-step directions for how to reproduce this issue and any information about the affected versions of internet explorer (version, operating system + service pack, etc). Thanks!

Comment #2

JvE CreditAttribution: JvE commented 24 April 2014 at 08:43

Status:

Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

» Active

Unfortunately IE9 is still being used and this is still an issue.
Background: http://www.iandevlin.com/blog/2011/12/html5/the-problem-with-the-poster-...

The only relevant thing is the "preload" attribute of the html5 "video" element.
See http://www.stevesouders.com/blog/2013/04/12/html5-video-preload/ for some real world usage data.

If you want IE9 users to see your thumbnail it has to be set to "none". This is a known issue for IE9 (http://bit.ly/PvIFxw).

I currently change theme/video-play-html5.tpl.php:
$preload = $autobuffering ? 'auto' : 'metadata';
to
$preload = 'none';

In the current state the video module only allows you to modify "$autobuffering" thus indirectly only allows the choice between 'auto' and 'metadata' for the preload attribute. A bit more control would be nice so admins can disable preload without having to edit the template.

I'm not sure what other information is needed.

Comment #3

JvE CreditAttribution: JvE commented 24 April 2014 at 08:44

Category:

Bug report

» Feature request

Comment #4

brycefisherfleig CreditAttribution: brycefisherfleig commented 25 April 2014 at 19:17

Priority:

Minor

» Major

Thanks for the update on this issue, JvE! This sounds like a problem worth addressing.

I could replace the "Automatically start video buffering" checkbox with three radios "Buffer", "Metadata", and "None - IE9 compatibility" on admin/config/media/video. However, it seems like that might get a little confusing... Can you think of a better interface?

Also, that template should be overrideable. You should be able to copy the theme/video-play-html5.tpl.php into your own theme directory and change the value of $preload there. Does that suite your needs? If so, I could provide better documentation in the module itself and here on d.o.

I should definitely address this one way or another -- I'd just like to make this module as easy to use as possible. Let me know your thoughts!

Comment #5

JvE CreditAttribution: JvE commented 28 April 2014 at 06:20

How about renaming the checkbox to 'preload' and make it radios with the values 'auto', 'metadata' and 'none'.
Add a little subtext stating "This setting is a suggestion only. Browsers decide what to do with it. Mobile browsers ignore this attribute. IE9 will only show tumbnails when this is set to none."