HTML5 Video

Many modern websites show videos. HTML5 provides a standard for showing them.

Check if your browser supports HTML5 video

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Video on the Web

Until now, there has not been a standard for showing a video/movie on a web page.

Today, most videos are shown through a plug-in (like flash). However, different browsers may have different plug-ins.

HTML5 defines a new element which specifies a standard way to embed a video/movie on a web page: the <video> element.

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Browser Support

    

Internet Explorer 9+, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari support the <video> element.

Note: Internet Explorer 8 and earlier versions, do not support the <video> element.

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HTML5 Video - How It Works

To show a video in HTML5, this is all you need:

Example

<video width="320" height="240" controls>
  <source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4">
  <source src="movie.ogg" type="video/ogg">
Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>

Try it yourself »

The control attribute adds video controls, like play, pause, and volume.

It is also a good idea to always include width and height attributes. If height and width are set, the space required for the video is reserved when the page is loaded. However, without these attributes, the browser does not know the size of the video, and cannot reserve the appropriate space to it. The effect will be that the page layout will change during loading (while the video loads).

You should also insert text content between the <video> and </video> tags for browsers that do not support the <video> element.

The <video> element allows multiple <source> elements. <source> elements can link to different video files. The browser will use the first recognized format.

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Video Formats and Browser Support

Currently, there are 3 supported video formats for the <video> element: MP4, WebM, and Ogg:

Browser	MP4	WebM	Ogg
Internet Explorer 9+	YES	NO	NO
Chrome 6+	YES	YES	YES
Firefox 3.6+	NO	YES	YES
Safari 5+	YES	NO	NO
Opera 10.6+	NO	YES	YES

• MP4 = MPEG 4 files with H264 video codec and AAC audio codec
• WebM = WebM files with VP8 video codec and Vorbis audio codec
• Ogg = Ogg files with Theora video codec and Vorbis audio codec

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MIME Types for Video Formats

Format	MIME-type
MP4	video/mp4
WebM	video/webm
Ogg	video/ogg

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HTML5 <video> - DOM Methods and Properties

HTML5 has DOM methods, properties, and events for the <video> and <audio> elements.

These methods, properties, and events allow you to manipulate <video> and <audio> elements using JavaScript.

There are methods for playing, pausing, and loading, for example and there are properties (like duration and volume). There are also DOM events that can notify you when the <video> element begins to play, is paused, is ended, etc.

The example below illustrate, in a simple way, how to address a <video> element, read and set properties, and call methods.

Example 1

Create simple play/pause + resize controls for a video:

   

Video courtesy of Big Buck Bunny.

The example above calls two methods: play() and pause(). It also uses two properties: paused and width.

Try it yourself »

For a full reference go to our HTML5 Audio/Video DOM Reference.

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HTML5 Video Tags

Tag	Description
<video>	Defines a video or movie
<source>	Defines multiple media resources for media elements, such as <video> and <audio>
<track>	Defines text tracks in media players