Viewing EchoVideo media requires a player with a variety of tools and buttons that let you customize your playback experience. In some cases, you will also have options beyond playback. Basic use of the player is addressed in this article, with additional information available in Using the Media Player Tools and How the Copyright Appears in the Player.

When you first see (embedded in a page) or launch the player (clicking a link), the player shows a title bar, a playback control bar, and an overlaid Play icon, as shown in the figure below. If you have viewed part of this media before, you will also see a Start Over button below the Play icon, which lets you restart playback from the beginning.

If the player isn't working correctly, follow the steps below:
1. Launch Google Chrome.
2. Select the 3 vertical dots and then Settings.
3. Click System.
4. Enable the toggle for Use graphics acceleration when available.
5. Restart Google Chrome.

The figure above shows the new player embedded within an LMS / VLE content window. The same player and its controls also appear in the public player (via a link generated for the media), but options such as Discussion do not.

The figures in the next section below do show the public player. Controlling playback of the media works the same way in all locations.

Player Controls

The control bar at the bottom of the player contains all the controls necessary for video playback, including play / pause, skip forward / back, show / hide transcripts, and speed options, among others. The control bar and title bar will fade out after 3 seconds (if no controls are in focus for keyboard access) and reappear on mouse movement over the player.

The following figure highlights the controls on the left side, which are described below the figure, in the order in which they appear, from left to right:

• Use the Play / Pause button to control the playback of the content.
  You can also click anywhere within the player to play / pause content.
• Use the Skip Back and Skip Forward buttons to fast-forward or rewind by 10-second increments.
  You can also click a location in the playback timeline to move the playback to that location.
• The volume control button and slider let you adjust playback volume, including clicking the icon to mute playback.
• The video timestamp shows the current playback position and the total length of the media.

The following figure highlights the controls on the right side, which are described below the figure in the order in which they appear, from left to right:

• The Transcript button works like a toggle to show / hide the transcript panel. It is disabled (gray) if the media does not have a transcript.
  If the media is inside a frame (i.e., on a webpage or an LMS / VLE page), clicking the Transcript button opens the media in a new tab. This is called the Full Tab view and is discussed briefly below and in more detail in Using the Media Player Tools.
• The Layout button appears only if the media contains two visual streams, such as a video of the lecturer and the computer display. Input sources can still be changed from within the Settings menu.
  
• The CC (closed captions) button works like a toggle to show / hide the closed captions for the media. Like the Transcript button, it is disabled (gray) if the media lacks closed captions.
  Use the Settings menu option for subtitles / CC, described below, to control how the captions appear

• Use the Speed menu to change the speed of playback. You can playback the video at .25 (quarter) speed up to 2x speed, or anywhere in between, at .25 intervals.

  EchoVideo cannot support all 3rd party speed controller plugins. The player's built-in variable speed playback (VSP) should be used and controlled with the existing keyboard shortcuts.

• Click the Settings button to open a menu of playback options as shown in the following figure and described below.
• Use the Quality selection menu to change from the default Auto bandwidth option to select between Full or Lower bandwidth, as is necessary for your network speed / connection.
  • The Subtitle / CC selection menu shows closed captioning options, including position, contrast, and size.
    If you are authenticated (EchoVideo knows who you are), your CC settings are retained and applied to all your EchoVideo media views when you select to show closed captions.
  • The Shortcut Keys option is visible in the Full-Tab Player and opens a list of the available shortcut key controls. This option does not appear in the Settings menu if the media is inside a frame on a web or LMS / VLE page. Expand to the Full Tab player to access it.
  • The Heatmap option (not shown above) allows you to toggle on or off an overlay that indicates the areas of the media that have been viewed more and less often (as a relative graph). The Heatmap button does NOT appear for media viewed outside of EchoVideo (e.g., embedded media or public links).

• The Fullscreen button opens the media in full-screen mode.

  Once clicked, the arrows on the button change direction, indicating that you can return from the widescreen view to show the Transcript or Discussion panel to the right of the playback.
  This button only appears if your browser window is currently set wide enough to accommodate the playback area WITH either panel to the right of it, AND you have Transcripts showing or Discussions available.

Additional Media Options

There is an option bar located below the playback panel. The options available depend on whether you are viewing media via a media link, through an LMS / VLE, or from a class in EchoVideo (for interactive media in a course).

If the media is inside a frame in an LMS / VLE content page, the bar you see below the playback panel looks like the one shown below.

Click Expand from the right side of the framed player to open the media in a new browser tab, also called the Full Tab view. Clicking Discussion or showing the Transcript for the media also opens the media into a new browser tab.

The options bar for the Full Tab view, shown in the figures below, displays different options depending on your role and the context in which you are viewing the media. 

The Download link/button appears for all media and all users, except...

• If the media does not have a transcript
• If you are a student viewing interactive media and have not answered all of the polls.
• In the mini-player option bar; the download button will appear when expanded to a new tab.

If you have a download button, minimally, the media's transcript is available for download, and you can select to download it as a TXT file or a VTT file. Click Download to open the download modal and make your selection, as shown in the figure below.

Alternatively, press Ctrl +D (Windows) or Cmd + D (Mac) to open the download modal.

Whether you can download anything other than the media transcript depends on several factors, and is discussed in more detail in Using the Media Player Tools.

Beyond playback and standard player options, you may encounter a few others. These are available only to authenticated users (we know who you are) and only in certain circumstances.

• Discussions - LMS / VLE users will have a Discussions link that opens the media into the Full Tab view, and provides a Discussions Panel. The Discussions link is located on the left of the Embedded media view options bar (inside an LMS frame) shown earlier on this page. The Discussions Panel is open by default when the media is shown in Full Tab view. It is discussed more in Viewing and Participating in Discussions in the Media Player.
• Media Details - Administrators and Instructors may see a Media Details button below the player (it looks like a bar graph). This button opens the Analytics tab for the media, providing easy access to viewing data for the media. This is discussed in more detail in Using the Media Player Tools.

Viewing Interactive Media - Videos with Polls

Most of this page is concerned with playback and other common functionality to the player. However, some of you are viewing  media in the player and, as such, are faced with polling questions that pop up while you are viewing.

Polling Questions can be embedded into videos, and any poll gates the playback so that Students cannot continue viewing or listening (or viewing a transcript or video references from Discussion posts) until they respond to the poll. For more information, see Viewing Videos with Embedded Polling Questions.

Students can respond only once to embedded polls. This is because any response allows the user to continue viewing the video, thereby negating the purpose of gating it. Once they respond, the student is shown their answer and the question's correct answer (if one is identified).