Improvement: Player should fire an error event when the source cannot be played

[ajbogh]

The player.src function should trigger an error event when the source cannot be played. This event will allow a developer to use custom fallbacks or display other messages than the notSupportedMessage.

The code below is an example. Please feel free to code it as you would see fit. It may be useful to use an Error object with additional appropriate information.

player.js (~lines 733-755)

vjs.Player.prototype.src = function(source){
  // Case: Array of source objects to choose from and pick the best to play
  if (source instanceof Array) {

    var sourceTech = this.selectSource(source),
        techName;

    if (sourceTech) {
        ...
    } else { //fire error event here
      this.el_.appendChild(vjs.createEl('p', {
        innerHTML: this.options()['notSupportedMessage']
      }));
      //fire error event here
      var e = new Error("Video not supported. -- [extra detail if necessary]");
      this.trigger("error", e);
    }

[heff]

We need to do some research into the right way to handle this situation according to the spec. Browsers don't appear to throw any errors in this situation, so an error may not be right. But there should be some kind of notification or way to customize this situation.
http://jsbin.com/UCuTuNu/5/edit

[heff]

The resource selection algo should be the first place to look to verity how it should be handled.
http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/the-video-element.html#concept-media-load-algorithm

[ajbogh]

Item 6 in your link shows that the resource should fire a MediaError with the code attribute MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED, but I don't know if that's happening.

Another method is to determine the codecs and filetypes of the media files before adding them to the src and perform a quick check against the video element using something like this code:

var canplay = false; //default to false
var codec = "";
var type = "";
if ( video.canPlayType ) {
    for(var i in source){ //we know it's an array
        // Check for support
        if(sources[i].type){
            type = sources[i].type;
        }else{
            type = "video/"+sources[i].src.split(".").pop(); //file extension
        }
        if(sources[i].codec)){ //add codec support to sources!!
            type += '; codecs="'+sources[i].codec+'"';
        }
        canplay = "" !== video.canPlayType(type);
    }
}else {
    //fallback to basic error message or let the system figure it out by setting canplay to true
}

[heff]

Wrapped this up into #869.

[heff]

This issue should be fixed now as of #1197