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New report on HTML video

Tim O'Riordan on Friday 27 January 2012 Tweet this!

The development of an open, universally adopted standard for web video has long been the holy grail for web developers and anyone interested in hosting and distributing video themselves - certainly since Apple dropped Flash support in 2010 for some of its products¹. In this search the video element of HTML5 (the latest revision of HTML - currently under development) is seen by many as the answer together with the adoption of at least one video format that is playable on all browsers. However, a new report from LongTail Video, the people behind the popular web video player - JWPlayer - indicates that agreement on this standard remains some way off.

In The State Of HTML5 Video² LongTail provide a snapshot of browser support for HTML5 video and Flash, mp4 and webM file formats. The report covers embed tag attributes, and support other features like full screen playback, adaptive streaming an accessibility. Essentially, their research indicates that with the exception of Internet Explorer (IE), all browsers support HTML 5 video (the anticipated release of IE10 will support this element). It identifies the biggest challenge to adoption remains the fragmentation of video format support, and reveals that none of the browsers support fully-featured accessibility in HTML5.

1. JISC Digital Media, 2010. HTML5 vs. Flash (à la VHS vs Betamax). Bristol: JISC Digital Media. [Online] Available at: http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/blog/entry/html5-vs-flash-a-la-vhs-vs-betamax [Accessed 27 January 2012]

2. LongTail Ad Solutions, 2012. The State Of HTML5 Video. New York: LongTail Ad Solutions. [Online] Available at: http://www.longtailvideo.com/html5 [Accessed 27 January 2012]

Image: HTML5 Logo / The World Wide Web Consortium / CC BY 3.0