using VideoJS VAST plugin without video content

Question

I want to display ads with VAST ad tag and with a HTML5 player. I'm currently trying to use videoJS with Vast Ads Plugin and I'm noticing I can't get the videoJS player to work without having a video content (video element with a src attribute for the video content).

Does anyone know a simple way to use a video player for just ads from VAST, and without video content? Google IMA3 SDK allows that, but I'm now looking for video plugins to cover IE use case (which Google IMA3 SDK does not cover).

Thank you!

Answer 1

There is a dirty way to do this. You can get the ad video url from the plugin that already parsed by it. Then just paste as src to video tag.

Answer 2

If the player you are using support only running pre-roll, that's obviously the best choice. Since that's likely not the case, I would recommend creating a small 1 second long black video MP4 and setting it as the content, with all video controls disabled. This was the lowest friction solution for me, as I didn't need to ask the player anything special of the player. The pre-roll plays, and the user briefly sees black at the end, which may not really be noticed.