Hack 28. Embed Video Directly in Your Application with HTML5 Video

Video is now mainstream in HTML5. Forget plug-ins, forget supporting video players, and welcome to the world of native video through HTML5. See why it’s such a big deal to have video as its own page element.

What’s the big deal with HTML5 video? We’ve been playing video on the Web for years. The answer is that the Web is changing. In years past it was pretty easy to predict what technologies your users would support when they came to your website: the site could use Flash, or Silverlight, or any other technology website developers could find to make it work.

In today’s world of desktop cell phones, tablets, and e-readers all sharing the same Web, it’s important to standardize on a format for video and audio that all players can consume. This need has really come to a head with Apple directly excluding plug-ins such as Flash and Silverlight in order to better control battery and power consumption on iOS devices. This in turn has thrust HTML5 video into the mainstream. On today’s Web, if you want to support all your users HTML5 video is essential.