facebook rss twitter

YouTube's HTML5 experiment sheds the need for Adobe's Flash Player

by Parm Mann on 21 January 2010, 12:53

Tags: YouTube (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qavqp

Add to My Vault: x

The HTML5 web standard is still some way from widespread adoption - and completion, we might add - but that isn't stopping some of the web's biggest names from showcasing what it can do.

Showing off HTML5's media potential, search-giant Google has launched a HTML5-based video player for its hugely-popular video-sharing website, YouTube.

The player, described by Google as "experimental", allows users with an HTML5-compatible browser to watch YouTube videos without the need to download a third-party browser plugin, namely the ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player.

At present, supporting browsers are few and far between. With the HTML5 standard yet to finalise specified audio and video codecs, browser compatibility remains hit or miss. YouTube's experimental player makes use of HTML5's video tag and the h.264 video codec - resulting in compatibility with just a handful of browsers; Chrome, Safari and ChromeFrame on Internet Explorer.

In addition to the lack of browser support, YouTube's HTML5 player doesn't yet support the playback of videos with ads, captions or annotations, and doesn't allow for full-screen viewing.

Google expects to introduce "new and improved versions" in the coming months, but for those interested in seeing what a HTML5-based player can do, point your supporting browser to youtube.com/html5 and opt in to the HTML5 beta.

We've given it a whirl, and though CPU usage whilst viewing video on the HTML5-based player remains impressively low, both the quality and the functionality of the player still needs a lot of work.



HEXUS Forums :: 13 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
well.. it doesn't seem to work very well, even for a beta :\
Yeah… I installed Chrome Frame for IE. Join the beta and then get told it won't work with my browser. Awesome :(
I've tried a few scripts/extensions that use HTML5 in Chrome for YouTube and it doesn't work very well. Pause, seek and replay were broken last time I tried it.
Freedom from flash is welcome, but no support in firefox yet then?
matty-hodgson
well.. it doesn't seem to work very well, even for a beta :\

Works pretty well for me in Chrome (v4.0.249.64 Beta), what browser are you using?

No fullscreen support yet, don't know if it's a HTML5 limitation but I'm sure it'll be implemented given time. Not sure if this is a bug or a difference in the way the video is downloaded, but the entire progress bar turns the light red colour (normally indicating that this part of the video has been downloaded) as soon as the page loads. Pretty sure my 2Mbps connection can't download a 4 minute video in a couple of seconds :p