Chapter Six. Embedding Media

As this book goes to press, online media standards are in a state of flux and a bit of turmoil. Adobe’s Flash Player—which, as of this writing, is still widely established as the standard format for delivering video on the Web—is being challenged by new features in HTML5, supported by the new generation of browsers, that embed video without the Flash Player. So, in this chapter we’ll explore both approaches, as well as techniques for embedding video using the HTML4 <EMBED> tag.

Which video format should you use? I can’t make a call for you on that. All video formats have their strengths and weaknesses. Compressed and streaming video (like Flash Video [FLV]) cannot easily be downloaded or saved to a viewer’s computer or mobile device, but it provides the highest-quality, fastest-downloading video available. QuickTime movies, on the other hand, may not download as quickly, but they can be easily configured and can be easily saved to a viewer’s computer or mobile device.