Proper uses and formatting of video on the Web
With Apple's zealistic decision to ban flash from the Ipad and Iphone the web has become a confusing place to post usable and standardized video content.
I would like to clarify some of the video parameters for you and give you some relevant information for future discussions. Unfortunately, it seems that no one Web Browser can agree on a standard format.
Ultimately, my point is that you shouldn’t be using video to provide your necessary points for three reasons anyway:
1. Lack of a standardized video formats
2. Possible lack of audio
3. Possible lack of an acceptable internet connection.
Remember people go to YouTube to watch video for entertainment, so if they can’t comfortably watch video they are out of luck.
You don’t want to tell one of your clients/customer that they are out of luck.
Here are some drawbacks of HTML 5:
1. It only works for about 25% of the population: you must be running the latest versions of Safari, Chrome, or IE with Chrome Frame installed.
2. Internet Explorer 8 has no HTML5 video support at all, but virtually all Internet Explorer users will have the Adobe Flash plugin.
3. It cannot go full screen. Unfortunately this is a limitation of the browsers right now. We are working on adding at least full-window support in the next day or so.
4. There is no single combination of containers and codecs that works in all HTML5 browsers. This is not likely to change in the near future.
5. To make your video watchable across all of these devices and platforms, you’re going to need to encode your video more than once ( at least 3 times ).
Here are some drawbacks of Flash:
- It does not work on an Ipad or Ipod/Iphone!!!!!!!!
Ultimately you will want to link to all three video files from a single video element, and fall back to a Flash-based video player.
Here is a great link if you want to get deeper into this:
http://diveintohtml5.org/video.html#what-works