Embed Video In Web Page (html)

I want embed a video in a webpage. I don't want to use flash because it's unavailable for a huge number of platforms. I'm reluctant to use HTML5 becase it's not too standard yet (I

Solution 1:

There are a few ways to combine HTML5 video with fallbacks for non-supporting browsers. A few specific solutions have been demonstrated.

One example is Video for Everybody by Camen Design, which conforms to HTML5, and uses conditional comments for IE and a nested object tag for older browsers. This should be standards-compliant, backwards-compatible, and future proof.

Solution 2:

HTML 5 is not standard. It is a draft. It will probably become standard one day. It will probably change first.

If you want to embed video in a page then, today at least, Flash is the best supported option you have available. I'd provide a link to a regular downloadable version as an option for people who don't have Flash (or who just want to watch the video in a dedicated video player).

Telling people to upgrade their browser won't help a great deal. As far as I know, the only browser with video support in a stable release is Firefox. Chrome doesn't support it except in the development version. I don't think Opera has brought out a stable build with support. Microsoft certainly hasn't added it to Internet Explorer yet. Safari I'm not sure about.

If you really want to avoid Flash, then you could use an HTML 4.01 object.

<objectdata="myVideo.ogv"type="video/ogg"><!-- fallback content here --></object>

… and hope the user has a plug-in capable of handling the video installed.

Solution 3:

I've just come across Cortado. It's a Java applet that plays an OGG. I actualy have to thank David Dorward for this, since checking up HTML5's status made me come across it. Firefox suggests using something like:

<videosrc="my_ogg_video.ogg"controlswidth="320"height="240"><objecttype="application/x-java-applet"width="320"height="240"><paramname="archive"value="cortado.jar"><paramname="code"value="com.fluendo.player.Cortado.class"><paramname="url"value="my_ogg_video.ogg"><p>You need to install Java to play this file.</p></object></video>

Java is available to FAR MORE platforms than flash, and, in this case, if just a fallback to HTML5.

(source)

Solution 4:

I know it's a bit late, but did you have a look at VLC ?

It can be embedded in a website, runs on Windows, Mac OS & Linux, is free, open source, supports a lot of video/audio format...

The drawback is that it doesn't have a nice GUI with play/pause/set volume/ ... functions , you have to create them yourself.

You can have a look at this article: http://www.videolan.org/doc/play-howto/en/ch04.html#id310965

Solution 5:

Why do you think a lot of large websites use Flash to play video? Probably not because of it's unavailability... Of course there are alternatives to embed video content in a web page, but if availability is an issue, Flash is the best way to go at the moment.