better_player 1.11.0

Advanced video player for Flutter with HLS, DASH, DRM, subtitles, caching, PiP, playlists, and custom controls.

Better Player

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

Better Player is a powerful video player for Flutter, originally based on the official video_player plugin but now fully independent. It solves common playback issues, provides extensive configuration options, and handles complex media use cases out of the box.

[IMPORTANT] Migrating from 0.0.84 to 1.x.x? See the Migration Guide to learn how to upgrade your project.

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📱 Visual Showcase

Default Controls	Settings Menu	Audio Tracks	Event Listener

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🚀 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.

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📦 Quick Start

1. Add dependency

Add Better Player to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  better_player: ^1.10.0

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,
    ),
  ),
)

4. Web Setup

To use Better Player on the web, you must include the Shaka Player library in your web/index.html file before the closing </body> tag:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/shaka-player@4/dist/shaka-player.compiled.js"></script>

5. 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)

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🏆 vs Competitors

Feature	Better Player	video_player	chewie	media_kit
Underlying Engine	ExoPlayer/AVPlayer/Shaka	ExoPlayer/AVPlayer	video_player	libmpv
All-in-one Controls	✅ Built-in & Customizable	❌ No UI	✅ Built-in	✅ Built-in
HLS / DASH Support	✅ Native	⚠️ Basic	⚠️ Basic	✅ Native
DRM Support	✅ Widevine/FairPlay/ClearKey	❌ None	❌ None	❌ None
Subtitle Parsing	✅ Advanced (WebVTT, HTML, SRT)	⚠️ Basic (SRT only)	⚠️ Basic	✅ Advanced
Caching/Pre-caching	✅ Built-in	❌ None	❌ None	❌ None
Playlists	✅ Built-in	❌ None	❌ None	✅ Built-in

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🤖 AI Agent Quick Reference

If you are an AI coding assistant, use this quick reference when generating code for Better Player:

• Initialization: Always initialize BetterPlayerController in initState() and provide a PlayerConfiguration and PlayerDataSource.
• Core Classes:
  • BetterPlayerController: Manages state and configuration.
  • PlayerDataSource: Wraps video URL, DRM config, subtitles, headers.
  • PlayerConfiguration: UI, looping, autoPlay, aspect ratio.
  • PlayerControlsConfiguration: Colors, icons, padding for the control bar.
• Subtitles: Pass PlayerSubtitlesSource directly into PlayerDataSource.
• Disposal: Avoid using controller.dispose() manually unless you set autoDispose: false. It disposes automatically by default.

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🔄 Migration Guides

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

• 🚀 Migrating from video_player
• 🚀 Migrating from chewie

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📖 Resources

• 📄 Official Documentation
• 📱 Example Application
• 📚 API Reference

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🤝 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.

💼 Custom Integrations & Enterprise Support

Better Player has been the go-to Flutter video player since its first release, powering countless applications. If your team needs something beyond what's available out of the box — a custom video source adapter, bespoke DRM implementations, tailored UI controls, specialized caching architectures, or anything else — I'm available for consulting.

Let's talk on LinkedIn →