Kaltura Player v2 vs Player v7 Comparison

At the University of Minnesota, Kaltura in Canvas and MediaSpace now use Kaltura’s version 7 (v7) player which brought a number of improvements to both functionality and security. 

The University's Kaltura players were upgraded from v2 to v7 on August 1, 2024. For more information about the update, refer to Kaltura Player Upgrade on August 1, 2024: Timeline and Impacts.

Kaltura v2 versus v7 Player

To understand the differences between the Kaltura new v7 player and older v2 player, refer to the players below. They use same recording, but display differently to a user/viewer based on the versions of the Kaltura player.

Kaltura v7 Player Example

This is a recording viewed in the v7 player, that the University upgraded to on August 1, 2024. Note that after selecting play, by default there is a transcript viewer available in the upper right, which shows a recording's closed captions in a clickable timeline.

Kaltura v2 Player Example

This is the same recording, viewed in the v2 player that was in use at the University between 2012 and August 1, 2024.

Major Improvements with the v7 Player

Compared to the v2 player, the v7 player:

  • Loads faster
  • Has a more modern design
  • Has a more responsive design, so it works better on different screen sizes (for example, mobile versus tablet versus computer)
  • Multi-source recordings work better on mobile devices and tablets
  • Has a transcript viewer available for users to view by default. This shows a recording's closed captions in a clickable timeline. Further, you can elect to have the transcript viewer pop out into a new window.
  • When connecting to YouTube videos in Kaltura, viewers can now change playback speed which was not possible in the v2 player
  • Performs better when loading Kaltura Video Quizzes. In the older player, some viewers did not see questions appear when playing the recording at a rate faster than normal 1x speed. This is fixed in the v7 player.
  • YouTube videos in Kaltura are now capable of playing at faster or slower than normal 1x speed.
  • 360 videos work in more browsers including Safari
  • When you delete a recording, then go to the Recycle Bin, it is now possible to review your deleted recording without taking it out of the Recycle Bin

Comparison Page from the Vendor

The vendor (Kaltura, Inc.) has published the Compare Player V2 vs. V7 experience web page that shows further examples and use cases. Note: The examples on the web page above look a little different than our planned implementation at the University of Minnesota, but they do give a broader view of the impacts of the upgrade.