Better Player

The complete, production-grade video player for Flutter.
One unified controller. Native performance. Zero bloated binaries.

Documentation • Live Demo • Migrating from video_player • Migrating from chewie • Migrating from media_kit • Example App

Why Better Player?

Stop stitching video_player, separate UI packages, abandoned caching plugins, and custom DRM code together. Better Player packs the full video stack into a single, cohesive engine.

Feature	Better Player	video_player + chewie	media_kit
App Size Overhead	~1-2 MB (Native OS engines)	~1-2 MB	+30MB to 50MB (Bundled mpv binaries)
Out-of-the-box UI	Built-in & customizable	Chewie required	Built-in
HLS / DASH	Full native support	Basic	Native
DRM (Widevine / FairPlay)	Native support	None	None
Smart Caching	Built-in offline cache	None (3rd party needed)	None
Subtitles & Closed Captions	SRT, WebVTT, TTML, CEA-608 / CEA-708	SRT only	Advanced
Picture in Picture (PiP)	Built-in	None	Platform-dependent
Playlists	Built-in	None	Built-in
VAST / VMAP Ads	Client-side ad engine (VAST 2.0-4.x, VMAP)	None	None
Telemetry & QoE	Real-time video metrics, offline retention & cloud export	None	None
Video Feeds & Pooling	Built-in (`BetterPlayerFeed`, `BetterPlayerPool`)	None	None

📱 Visual Showcase

Mobile Overview	Native Picture-in-Picture (PiP)
Web & Desktop Overview	Touch & Fullscreen Controls
Adaptive HLS Quality & Track Switching	Styled Subtitles (WebVTT, TTML, SRT)

📦 Quick Start

1. Install

flutter pub add better_player

2. Basic Playback

Play a network video with full controls in three lines:

import 'package:better_player/better_player.dart';

AspectRatio(
  aspectRatio: 16 / 9,
  child: BetterPlayer.network(
    "https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/BigBuckBunny.mp4",
  ),
)

3. Production Playback (Caching, DRM & HLS)

Configure caching, custom headers, or DRM with a single controller:

final controller = BetterPlayerController(
  const PlayerConfiguration(
    aspectRatio: 16 / 9,
    autoPlay: true,
  ),
  betterPlayerDataSource: PlayerDataSource(
    DataSourceType.network,
    "https://example.com/stream.m3u8",
    // Cache video locally for instant playback:
    cacheConfiguration: const CacheConfiguration(useCache: true),
    // Or protect content with DRM:
    drmConfiguration: DrmConfiguration(
      drmType: DrmType.widevine,
      licenseUrl: "https://license.example.com",
    ),
  ),
);

BetterPlayer(controller: controller);

🌐 Platform Packages

Better Player uses a federated architecture. Each platform runs on its native, hardware-accelerated media engine:

Platform	Package	Engine
Android	`better_player_android`	Google Media3 / ExoPlayer
iOS	`better_player_ios`	Apple AVPlayer
macOS	`better_player_macos`	Apple AVPlayer
Web	`better_player_web`	Shaka Player / HTML5
Windows	`better_player_windows`	libmpv

🔄 Migration Guides

Switching from another package? Follow the step-by-step migration guides:

Migrating from video_player: Replace VideoPlayerController and remove separate UI packages.
Migrating from chewie: Consolidate your player and controls into a single controller.
Migrating from media_kit: Reclaim 30-50 MB of mobile app size and switch to native OS media engines.

🤖 AI Coding Agents

Better Player supports Dart package skills so tools like Cursor, Claude Code, Gemini, and Copilot understand the API out of the box:

dart run skills@ get -p better_player

📖 Resources & Docs

Official Documentation: Full guides for caching, DRM, subtitles, VAST ads, and playlists.
Example Application: Complete working samples covering every feature.
API Reference: Generated Dart doc reference.

🤝 Contributing

Found a bug or missing a feature? Open an issue or submit a pull request.

💼 Enterprise Support

Need a custom video source adapter, bespoke DRM implementation, or tailored UI controls? I am available for consulting.

Contact on LinkedIn →