TL;DR: SmartVideo is not compatible with external players, except a plain HTML5 <video> element on Growth and Pro.
We’ve built the SmartVideo player to load with no third-party ad code by default, and without the “related video” machinery that weighs down many off-the-shelf options.
This makes our player a key, tightly integrated component, and part of our overall solution. As a result, SmartVideo is not compatible with external players, with one exception below.
Keeping a plain HTML5 video
On Growth and Pro, the Background & HTML5 videos setting (autoreplace.videotag) accelerates a native <video> element and keeps it, rather than replacing it with the SmartVideo player. See Using a standard HTML video tag with SmartVideo or, for LearnDash Video Progression, How to configure SmartVideo to work with LearnDash Video Progression.