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HTML5 Video

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Many modern websites show videos. HTML5 provides a standard for showing them.

Check if your browser supports HTML5 video

Video on the Web

Until now, there has not been a standard for showing a video/movie on a web page.

Today, most videos are shown through a plug-in (like flash). However, different browsers may have different plug-ins.

HTML5 defines a new element which specifies a standard way to embed a video/movie on a web page: the <video> element.

Browser Support

Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari support the <video> element.

Note: Internet Explorer 8 and earlier versions, do not support the <video> element.

HTML5 Video - How It Works

To show a video in HTML5, this is all you need:

Example

<video width="320" height="240" controls="controls">
<source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
<source src="movie.ogg" type="video/ogg" />
Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>

Try it yourself »

The control attribute adds video controls, like play, pause, and volume.

It is also a good idea to always include width and height attributes. If height and width are set, the space required for the video is reserved when the page is loaded. However, without these attributes, the browser does not know the size of the video, and cannot reserve the appropriate space to it. The effect will be that the page layout will change during loading (while the video loads).

You should also insert text content between the <video> and </video> tags for browsers that do not support the <video> element.

The <video> element allows multiple <source> elements. <source> elements can link to different video files. The browser will use the first recognized format.

Video Formats and Browser Support

Currently, there are 3 supported video formats for the <video> element: MP4, WebM, and Ogg:

Browser	MP4	WebM	Ogg
Internet Explorer 9	YES	NO	NO
Firefox 4.0	NO	YES	YES
Google Chrome 6	YES	YES	YES
Apple Safari 5	YES	NO	NO
Opera 10.6	NO	YES	YES

MP4 = MPEG 4 files with H264 video codec and AAC audio codec
WebM = WebM files with VP8 video codec and Vorbis audio codec
Ogg = Ogg files with Theora video codec and Vorbis audio codec

HTML5 Video Tags

Tag	Description
<video>	Defines a video or movie
<source>	Defines multiple media resources for media elements, such as <video> and <audio>
<track>	Defines text tracks in mediaplayers