Any video loaded with @vimeo/player.js fails to play in AirPlay

[tharwi]

Attempting to cast a Vimeo video to an AirPlay receiver using the player.js library consistently fails on iOS 18.5.
The same device can AirPlay other HTML5 videos just fine, and the same Vimeo URL plays locally on the handset.

Environment

• player.js v2.20.3
• iOS 18.5

Reproduce steps

• Go to https://vimeo.com/watch page and open a video
• Try to AIrPlay using the Apple TV device

[tharwi]

It seems like this is happening in the Vimeo app as well, but other platforms like YouTube and Flickr are working perfectly. Has something happened to Vimeo videos recently?

[rkrishnan8594]

@tharwi I'm unable to reproduce this issue when AirPlaying from my phone running iOS 18.5 to my MacBook pro running macOS 15.4.1. Do you mind sharing the exact video you're attempting to AirPlay and which target device you're attempting to AirPlay to?

[tharwi]

@rkrishnan8594 This works fine when AirPlaying from a MacBook to an iPhone, but it fails when AirPlaying to a TV via an Apple TV box. What I'm thinking is when Apple TV attempts to fetch Vimeo-hosted video URLs, these requests may getting blocked.

This is a sample video that fails
https://vimeo.com/736087817/b9e589605e

[mcintyrehh]

Hi @tharwi, could you provide a little more detail about how this fails? Does the AirPlay connection succeed but playback proceeds on the device? Also, which model of Apple TV are you using?

I've been testing and haven't been able to reproduce the issue. I'm on iOS 18.4 casting to an Apple TV 3rd generation. I'll try upgrading to 18.5 to see if that

[tharwi]

Hi @mcintyrehh, I’m also using an Apple TV 3rd generation.

AirPlay connects successfully, but when I try to play a video, the TV or monitor displays an error message.

Here are the detailed steps.

1. Open a video from https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks in iPhone
2. Click the AirPlay button and select my Apple TV from the list
3. AirPlay is getting connected, but an error message pops up from my TV

I tried the same steps from the Vimeo iOS app as well and got the same error.

Then I tried the same in the YouTube app just to make sure it was some fault with my devices. But the YouTube AirPlay is working fine.

[mcintyrehh]

Hi @tharwi , I upgraded my personal iPhone to iOS 18.5 last night and I can't recreate the issue.
Would you mind sharing the error message that you are getting? And the model of iPhone?

If you're getting the same error from the web and the app this is unlikely to be a player.js issue, as the platforms use different tech stacks. I'm going to convert this to a discussion and we can continue debugging there.

[tharwi]

Hi @mcintyrehh, thanks for looking into this deeply.

This is the error message I'm getting.

This is a recording

Uploading Untitlednn-ezgif.com-resize-video.mov…

iPhone model - iPhone SE (2nd generation)
iPhone version - iOS 18.5
Apple TV model - A1469
Apple TV software - 7.9 (8163)

[tharwi]

Hi @mcintyrehh, sorry, my account was suspended by Github and I think you won't have get the notification for my last message.

[tharwi]

Hi @mcintyrehh, any update on this?

[mcintyrehh]

Hi @tharwi, sorry for the delay here!

Would you mind filing a support ticket with these details so we can investigate this? It would help if you included the device info you've provided above, as well as the model of the TV, and any other debug logs you may have access to.

I'm going to close this out since the issue occurs on the iOS app that doesn't use our Player or this SDK, my hunch is this is a device compatibility issue that we can investigate.