Allow Native HLS playback on other Platforms

Have you read the FAQ and checked for duplicate open issues? Yes

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Would like to use devices native HLS decoder when known. Some TVs allow Playback of encrypted HLS but Shaka intercepts the request and throws error 4034 As Shaka does not support encryption as yet.

Describe the solution you’d like

We would like the option to force the use of the Native HLS player via src like it does automatically for Safari.

Describe alternatives you’ve considered

Alternatives are using a separate player for HLS playback on TV devices when DRM is not available. We are trying to reduce maintenance of players and are hoping we can use the Shaka Player API as is possible for playback via src on Safari.

[joeyparrish]

@avelad, no need. If the proposal would work for @stuartflanagan, I have the change done already locally.

[joeyparrish]

The logic that controls this is in lib/player.js in shouldUseSrcEquals_().

After all the hard requirements are dealt with, there is a decision between MSE and src= when both are possible. It currently looks like this:

      // We would prefer MediaSource in some cases, and src= in others.  For
      // example, Android has native HLS, but we'd prefer our own MediaSource
      // version there.  For Safari, the choice is governed by the
      // useNativeHlsOnSafari setting of the streaming config.
      return Platform.isApple() && this.config_.streaming.useNativeHlsOnSafari;

How about we create a flag like streaming.preferNativeHls? Then we could change this to:

    if (this.config_.streaming.preferNativeHls) return true;
    if (Platform.isApple()) return this.config_.streaming.useNativeHlsOnSafari;
    return false;

What do you think?