VPAID | Non-Linear ads

Hello Rehan,

1) You can use [fvplayer src="" vast="" vast_engine="flash"]

We will put that into documentation, but part of that should be in user interface, so we need to work on that.

2) I can see the issue (it’s the VAST from http://ima3vpaid.appspot.com right?). When I play the video, the ad appears at the bottom of the player but no video plays.

That VAST only contains InLine Linear VPAID ad. If it’s non-linear ad, why is it being served as Linear? Even the Google VAST testing tool is not able to display that properly here: https://developers.google.com/interactive-media-ads/docs/vastinspector_dual

Could you please check that on your end? Does you have to use VPAID for these non-linear ads?

On our end, we will make sure simple non-linear ads like the two Liverail Examples here work: http://www.iab.net/guidelines/508676/digitalvideo/vast/vast_xml_samples

Thanks,
Martin

Hello rehan007,

thank you for the screenshot, but it doesn’t explain why your ad tag uses VPAID SWF for a simple non-linear ad.

We worked on adding Non-linear VAST support as mentioned above and it looks good so far. It looks nice when the ad is scheduled to kick-in 5 seconds into the video or so – just like YouTube ads do.

Thanks,
Martin

Hello rehan007,

I found where you probably obtained the ad tag, it should be here: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/6029601?hl=en

What I get there is this: http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?ad_type=video&client=ca-video-pub-4968145218643279&videoad_start_delay=0&description_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&max_ad_duration=40000&adtest=on

Which is largely different from what you get: http://ima3vpaid.appspot.com/?adTagUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fgoogleads.g.doubleclick.net%2Fpagead%2Fads%3Fad_type%3Dvideo_image_text_flash%26client%3Dca-video-pub-4968145218643279%26videoad_start_delay%3D0%26description_url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.youtube.com%26hl%3Den%26max_ad_duration%3D40000%26adtest%3Don

Notice that your ad tag appears to be served via some ima3vpaid.appspot.com tool which reads the original ad URL as ?adTagUrl=. It appears the purpose of this is to make it Flash compatible. Are you sure you need that? Have you opted somewhere that your player requires Flash ads?

Also, according to this guide, “video_image_text_flash” in the VAST URL can be replaced with just “image_text_flash” and get the non-linear ads all the time, that helps with our testing: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/3112148

All of the above helps a lot with our testing. The support for HTML5 non-linear video ads is almost finished and we are working on Flash non-linear ads.

Thanks,
Martin

Hello rehan007,

1)I can see that a video pre-roll plays on your sample page.

However the non-linear ads were only fixed now and now we are in phase of testing. You can see our test here: https://foliovision.com/player/demos/vast-vpaid-ads#non-linear

2) “The VAST response document is empty.” means that there is no ad available. Ad networks don’t have infinite number of ads which their customers want to get delivered, so sometimes there might be no ad at all.

3) “Exceeds limit of 15 sec…..” – could you please send a screenshot of this?

4) Licensing – sure just post your questions here and we will move that part of discussion into our support system.

Thanks,
Martin

Hello Rehan,

non-linear ad not playing: https://foliovision.com/player/demos/vast-vpaid-ads#non-linear What browser are you using? Are you sure it doesn’t play? Perhaps it only takes a bit longer to buffer.

If the 15 seconds error only appears sparsely, it should be fine. If it appears all the time, then there must be a problem. Does it ever appear with the Google test VAST tag? http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?ad_type=video&client=ca-video-pub-4968145218643279&videoad_start_delay=0&description_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&max_ad_duration=40000&adtest=on

We will answer the licensing questions.

Thanks,
Martin

Hello Rehan,

could you please try again? Just reload the page to see if it works now. Perhaps I forgot to increase the version to bust the cache. It works for me in the same browsers, Windows 7 and OS X 10.9.5.

Thanks,
Martin

Hello Rehan,

great, if it works now, we should release the new version.

The mobile support is on our list of things to do. Now that we support both HTML5 and Flash ads, with midroll configuration (not documented yet) and waterfall loading, it’s the right time to add this.

Mobile devices are tricky though, we can start with iPad and Android 4. iPhone (except for the latest one with iOS 8) and Android < 4 uses its built-in player to play the video, so I’m not sure if we can serve ads there yet.

Thanks,
Martin

Hello Rehan,

FV Player VAST 0.2.9 was released, so you can use your non-linear ads now. If you don’t see the upgrade available in your WordPress, just refresh it a couple of times, or get the new version at https://foliovision.com/edit using your licensed account.

Mobile support is high on our list.

Thanks,
Martin

Hello Ron,

we are working on the mobile support right now. So far it works with everything except the quality switching, so we are working on that.

Perhaps we can make the mobile support an option and release the new version sooner, so you could use it if you are not using quality switching.

Thanks,
Martin

Agree Martin/Alec,

I think most of us get that this is a new product. I am willing to deal with a few bugs to start using mobile VAST now. I really like the player so far and think you guys are doing a great job.

Ron

Hello Ron,

we made you a beta tester in our system, so you can now get our latest stable beta version of FV Player VAST by clicking the (beta) link in https://foliovision.com/edit -> My Products -> FV Player VAST.

This will give you a fv-player-vast-beta.zip file. It’s advisable to install this version, but keep the original one deactivated so you can then switch back to it if you find a big issue.

With basic videos (mp4 video, directly linked) it works for us in:

* iPad with iOS 5.1.1, iOS 7.0.1, iOS 8.1
* iPhone with iOS 6.1.6 and iOS 7.0.1 – won’t play the ad if it’s skippable, but the playback works
* Android 4.3 with Chrome 39.0.2171.93
* Android 4.3 with built-in browser – doesn’t play the ad, but the playback works

I checked your site and you are using a VPAID ad. Mobile will only work with HTML5 VAST ad. Simply put up the VPAID Flash ad as the first one in Settings -> FV Player VAST and then put in the HTML5 ad as second by using “Add more”. Mobile device will know if won’t play the Flash ad, so it will skip to the HTML5 ad.

If your VPAID ad returns empty, desktop browsers with Flash will get to the HTML5 ad as well.

You can use the following VAST ad for testing: https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640×360&iu=/6062/iab_vast_samples/skippable&ciu_szs=300×250,728×90&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=xml_vast2&unviewed_position_start=1&url=%5Breferrer_url%5D&correlator=%5Btimestamp%5D

Thanks,
Martin