New plugin for JW Player
I created a small simple plugin for the JW Player. However, that plugin hasn't seen the light of day in their add-ons repository. So I thought I'd add it here. More description & links in the following paragraphs.
The problem
The JW Player has a weird mute configuration. While you can automatically mute the player before the video starts, there is no indication to the user of this. So the JW Player has a "show mute" setting that you may optionally enable to pop up an icon indicating that the volume is muted. The problem is that this button is both broken and non-intuitive. It's broken because clicking it doesn't actually unmute anything. Instead, clicking it pauses the video. "Whaaaaaat?" you might say. Yes, the mute indicator pauses. As far as being non-intuitive, I would put forward that the unmute icon doesn't even really indicate what it is or does. I'm sure that at least a few people have seen the icon and been relatively confused about what it means.
The solution
My product will change the interactions around muting video, making it more palatable to start videos with the sound muted by default. First, it changes the icon to be larger and more pretty, with some explanatory text. Second, clicking the icon will actually unmute. Third, the icon will disappear once the user clicks it.
The details
This is a JavaScript plugin. You'll need to put the unmuter.js file on your server in the same location that you use for the jwplayer.js file. To make the example page work, you'll need to update the paths in that file -- make sure the .js files are all accurately listed, as well as the .swf path and the .mp4 path (which can be a path to any video you have).
There is one configuration options, which you'll see in the example file is commented out. That is, the "image" option allows you to specify some other image to use as the mute button, if you don't like mine.
Download
Unmuter should eventually appear as an add-on over at longtailvideo.com, the official home of the JW Player. Until then, you can download the code and the example file here.
About
Unmuter was created by Tony Boyd while under employment at OnLive, a gaming company. OnLive does not provide support for this product. It is maintained solely by Tony Boyd.