From cb81d39e96cf4be915f89ff0861bf75046596dfe Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: danieldanieli <daniel.danieli@cloudinary.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:48:10 +0300
Subject: [PATCH] feat(config): default preload to metadata

Align the player default with standard browser behavior and cut the
initial network cost: `auto` lets the browser pull media data for a video
the user may never play, while `metadata` fetches only what is needed to
report duration and dimensions.

Updated in both places the default is declared - defaults.js (runtime)
and configSchema.json, which is copied into the published bundles as the
documented option reference.

Note this governs the native <video> element, so it applies to
progressive sources; hls.js drives its own loading for adaptive
streaming, and autoplay still fetches media data either way.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 src/config/configSchema.json | 2 +-
 src/config/defaults.js       | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/config/configSchema.json b/src/config/configSchema.json
index 507ab69e1..98144c587 100644
--- a/src/config/configSchema.json
+++ b/src/config/configSchema.json
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@
     "preload": {
       "type": "string",
       "enum": ["auto", "metadata", "none"],
-      "default": "auto"
+      "default": "metadata"
     },
     "sourceTransformation": {
       "type": "object",
diff --git a/src/config/defaults.js b/src/config/defaults.js
index 5b44b833c..5b9f8d20b 100644
--- a/src/config/defaults.js
+++ b/src/config/defaults.js
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ export default {
   aiHighlightsGraph: false,
   visualSearch: false,
   download: false,
-  preload: PRELOAD.AUTO,
+  preload: PRELOAD.METADATA,
   textTrackSettings: false,
   loop: false,
   muted: false,