VIDEO - HTML5 - page 215

Letting the pundits do their job

Technology pundits seem to dwell on the complex and interesting issues surrounding why different
companies have chosen particular formats. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Opera, Adobe, and Mozilla
selected the fi le formats they did for reasons that have to do with patents, use rights, licenses, and
fi nancial considerations, as well as integrating the technology into other plans they may have. All you
need to be concerned with is what works for your Web sites — wondering why one technology is
preferred over another by the browser providers is best left to the pundits. You just need to know what
will work and how to implement it.

At this point in time, going beyond what can be tested and proven is a bit risky. However, I
think that we can look at four dif erent kinds of i le containers and codecs and use the four
listed at the beginning of the chapter. h e 3GP container format is related to MPEG-4, but it's
actually an H.263 format, and its primary adoption has been for mobile devices like the
iPhone. Table 11.1 shows the compatibility matrix of the major browsers on which video tests
have been made or decisions have been made.

Table 11.1 Browsers and Video Format Support

Browser H.264 OGG WebM 3GP

Chrome No Yes Yes No

219

Firefox No Yes Unknown No

Internet Explorer 9 *No No No Yes

Opera No Yes Yes No

Safari Yes No No Yes

Safari Mobile No No No Yes
* Microsoft announced that it would support H.264, but IE9 was unable to play MP4 format at the time of testing the beta version
of the browser.

Given the array of compatibility between browsers and i le formats, you need to know how
to convert between the dif erent formats. h is next section examines how to do that. h e
conversion needs to happen i rst between the i le type used by the recording instrument (a
camera or screen-sharing application) or video-editing sot ware. h e second type of conver-
sion is between the video fully prepared for the Web and the possible types of i les required
for HTML5 pages. Once all the types of i les needed are ready, all you have to do is place them
in <source> tags within a <video> container.

MAKE MINE WEBM: THE MIRO VIDEO CONVERTER
Of all the i le formats tested, only Opera worked with the WebM format. However, several
other companies who make browsers are also involved in the WebM project, and so in the