Better Player

The most advanced and feature-rich video player for Flutter.

pub package pub package pub package

Better Player is a powerful video player for Flutter, built on top of the official video_player plugin and inspired by Chewie. It solves common playback issues, provides extensive configuration options, and handles complex media use cases out of the box.

IMPORTANT Migrating to 1.x.x? We've introduced a cleaner federated architecture, direct native bridges (JNI/FFI) in v1.2.0, and unified model names (e.g. BetterPlayerConfiguration is now PlayerConfiguration). See the Migration Guide to 1.x.x to learn how to upgrade your project.

📱 Visual Showcase

Default Controls Settings Menu Audio Tracks Event Listener

🚀 Key Features

🎬 Advanced Playback

  • Adaptive Streaming: Full support for HLS (Android & iOS), DASH (Android), and Smooth Streaming (Android) with track selection.
  • Resolution Control: Easy switching between alternative video resolutions.
  • Smart Caching: Seamlessly cache videos for high-performance offline playback.
  • Customizable UI: Refactored controls that are highly customizable via configuration.

🛡️ Content Protection & Security

  • DRM Support: Industry-standard protection with Widevine, FairPlay, and ClearKey.
  • Secured Requests: Full support for custom HTTP Headers for authenticated streams.

📱 User Experience

  • Picture in Picture (PiP): Native PiP support for multitasking on Android and iOS.
  • Background Notifications: Rich media notifications for background control.
  • Subtitle Engine: Advanced support for SRT and WebVTT with HTML tags.
  • Playlist Support: Built-in support for multiple videos and continuous playback.
  • Playback Speed: Native support for changing playback speed.

🛠️ Developer Friendly

  • ListView Integration: Optimized for smooth playback within scrolling lists.
  • Lifecycle Aware: Automatically handles player disposal and lifecycle changes.
  • Event System: Comprehensive event listener for tracking every player state.

📦 Quick Start

1. Add dependency

Add Better Player to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  better_player: ^1.2.0

2. Basic Usage

The simplest way to play a video is using the network factory:

import 'package:better_player/better_player.dart';

// Inside your build method
AspectRatio(
  aspectRatio: 16 / 9,
  child: BetterPlayer.network(
    "https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/BigBuckBunny.mp4",
    betterPlayerConfiguration: PlayerConfiguration(
      aspectRatio: 16 / 9,
      looping: true,
      autoPlay: true,
    ),
  ),
)

3. Advanced Controller Usage

For full control, use the BetterPlayerController:

BetterPlayerController _controller = BetterPlayerController(
    const PlayerConfiguration(),
    betterPlayerDataSource: PlayerDataSource(
        DataSourceType.network,
        "https://example.com/video.mp4",
    ),
);

BetterPlayer(controller: _controller)

🔄 Migration Guides

Switching from another package? Check out our step-by-step migration guides:

📖 Resources

🤝 Contributing

Valuable contributions are welcome! Better Player is a community-driven project. If you encounter bugs or have feature requests, please open an issue. If you want to contribute code, feel free to submit a Pull Request.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Libraries

better_player