Jul
26
Too many video codecs how does HTML5 help?
There are many methods for putting video on the web and it is very easy to put video up that never reaches your audience. This is an article that explains the available methods and codecs that can be used.
“If your eyes haven’t glazed over yet, you’re doing better than most. As you can tell, video (and audio) is a complicated subject — and this was the abridged version! I’m sure you’re wondering how all of this relates to HTML5. Well, HTML5 includes a video element for embedding video into a web page. There are no restrictions on the video codec, audio codec, or container format you can use for your video. One
As of this writing, this is the landscape of HTML5 video:
Mozilla Firefox (3.5 and later) supports Theora video and Vorbis audio in an Ogg container. Firefox 4 also supports WebM.
Opera (10.5 and later) supports Theora video and Vorbis audio in an Ogg container. Opera 10.60 also supports WebM.
Google Chrome (3.0 and later) supports Theora video and Vorbis audio in an Ogg container. Google Chrome 6.0 also supports WebM.
Safari on Macs and Windows PCs (3.0 and later) will support anything that QuickTime supports. In theory, you could require your users to install third-party QuickTime plugins. In practice, few users are going to do that. So you’re left with the formats that QuickTime supports “out of the box.” This is a long list, but it does not include WebM, Theora, Vorbis, or the Ogg container. However, QuickTime does ship with support for H.264 video (main profile) and AAC audio in an MP4 container.
Mobile phones like Apple’s iPhone and Google Android phones support H.264 video (baseline profile) and AAC audio (“low complexity” profile) in an MP4 container.
Adobe Flash (9.0.60.184 and later) supports H.264 video (all profiles) and AAC audio (all profiles) in an MP4 container.
Internet Explorer 9 supports all profiles of H.264 video and either AAC or MP3 audio in an MP4 container. It will also play WebM video if you install a third-party codec, which is not installed by default on any version of Windows. IE9 does not support other third-party codecs (unlike Safari, which will play anything QuickTime can play).
Internet Explorer 8 has no HTML5 video support at all, but virtually all Internet Explorer users will have the Adobe Flash plugin. Later in this chapter, I’ll show you how you can use HTML5 video but gracefully fall back to Flash.”
If you would like read the full article follow this link.