I'm working on kind of an educational site, where there are teachers and students around the world (potentially). Since it's a non-profit site, and I don't have the need for it to be done tomorrow (kind of a side project of something bigger), I wanted to know the best way to figure out how to do this. I'm not a programmer by trade, I've been on the systems side of things for years, but I understand most technology and the question here is more how to gauge what to do so I can get the right resources in place.
That said... here's what I am looking at. I figure the future is HTML5, and that's probably where I'd rather spend my efforts given that it will be cross platform and without the need for plugins. It will work on mobile as well. Question is, how well does HTML5 handle input media, say desktop capture and camera, or on mobile perhaps, where I'd want to use the user's phone camera, etc.
Second question is dynamic streaming... I've read about MPEG DASH, then there are technologies like Smooth Streaming (which I think given the way Silverlight is going is going to be gone or useless), then also Apple and Flash, but if I'm doing HTML5 it doesn't benefit me. Any ideas here would be really helpful, and the more detail the better! :)
That's about it... there are free chat services out there like using the MSN Web Chat controls (how good they are, I don't know, but worldwide most people have a Hotmail/MSN account) so I can use that for chat. I don't know its limitations of course, but that's something if people know or have suggestions, then I'm all ears.
As far as I know the video tags doesn't support input media as such, all it does rather well for the moment is play video files IF the file formats is supported by the given browser (different browsers different extensions) Also I have seen out there a solution where someone stream their own webcam into the video tags but that was on Mac only and using other technologies to help out.
The video tag is not supported by all browsers either, recent modern one will but if you need to support IE flash is still a better alternative way to provide videos across all platforms.
Streaming is only partially supported by some browsers and is not an easy task to achieve.
Here is few links that might help.
http://ishtml5readyyet.com/
http://html5readiness.com/
https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Media_formats_supported_by_the_audio_and_video_elements
There are actually several posibilities to do this since HTML5 makes it super easy to stream most the basic input using video tags is however very much limited because you won't have actual access to the bytes like you would want.
But to convert something basic like mp4 to html5 compatible video just use this converter tool:
http://easyhtml5video.com/
Related
HTML5 audio on mobile devices has many limitations and actually I would call them bugs.
My app implementing something like audio player.
Actually all it works fine for desktop but in mobile version I encounter many bugs and have to do many workarounds different for different browsers and os to get it work, and still it sucks.
I haven't dived into web audio api, but it seems to be designed for slightly different tasks.
So my question is, is it make sense (and is it possible?) to replace HTML5 audio with Web Audio API, if I need just to load files and play them (partly, sprites) just to avoid limitations and bugs of HTML5 audio?
I think you're probably going to find at least as many bugs or edge cases with Web Audio on mobile as you're seeing using the <audio> element. Plus, support for Web Audio on mobile platforms isn't great. If it were me, I'd be inclined to stick with <audio> unless you have a specific use-case that can only be addressed by the Web Audio API.
Actually, I'll disagree - if your goal is to play short snippets of sounds, particularly simultaneously - e.g., providing sound for a platform jumper game - Web Audio is going to be a lot easier to use, including on mobile. has issues managing multiple files/instances. On the other hand, if the problems you're running in to are due to decoding issues, or you're using mostly long files, it's not going to help, as Kevin and Brad said.
I recommend SoundJS which I develop, it takes a lot of the pain out of supporting audio on multiple devices. Basically it lets you write a single code base that works everywhere and already deals with edge cases where it can.
HTML Audio element implementation on mobile devices is really terrible, so if not SoundJS I would at least recommend switching to Web Audio which works well on iOS and Android Chrome but is not supported in Android Native browser.
idbehold's comment is accurate, the most common problem with mobile devices is having to play audio inside of a user initiated event (touch). I've developed a solution to this problem, shared in the Mobile Safe Approach tutorial.
Hope that helps.
Coursera has these interactive questions in the middle of their video lecture
how could I go about implementing this myself,
or better yet, does this feature exist for public use somewhere?
Furthermore, I'm trying to decide which HTML5 video player / platform to invest in and the key criteria would be feature-rich (so as to not reinvent the wheel / spend lots of time implementing video player features) as well as highly customizable (for those custom needs).
I.e. which player should I use to get the quiz up,
but in the near future I would also need to add the speed feature that Coursera has
I need Closed Captions support
and would like to overlay slides every now and then
plus all the expected features of switching between different source resolutions (360p, 720p etc), it should work in IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Android and iOS native browsers etc
Candidates
In terms of customizability and feature-set, SublimeVideo seems to come on top, but I don't know when they will support subtitles.
Haven't researched Flowplayer much, would that be better for my purposes?
Jwplayer is good for all the standard features, and includes subtitle support, but I haven't really seen any plug-ins, aesthetic skinning aside, deep customization does not really seem to be their focus / strength?
Or videojs
Or something else yet ?
Flowplayer and Jwplayer are amazing players and you could do what you want, but in the free version you can't remove their branding. I try to stick to opensource projects you you don't worry about licenses.
I've done something similar as you need with Mediaelementjs. It supports all you need at the moment, and they will support the variable speed at some point on the future as announced in their website. However it has been like that for more than a year now since I started watching, so probably your "near future" is before their "coming soon".
I think your best free option will be Videojs. They also support all you need. For the variable speed there is this plugin.
Basically you set up a listener in the timeupdate event, and when it reaches the point that you need, you attach the quiz html to overlay the video area.
I have used flowplayer extensively. I'm just now starting to dive more into their new HTML5 version. The licensing for flowplayer is reasonable. It does have a plugin for doing subtitles and the cue point functionality works great. I also like that they have the Flash version that works well for fallback and I still use it for rtmp streaming.
I have built a video presenter with synchronized slides using the flash version which I'll be changing over to have an HTML5 version. I use it to produce speaker videos with Powerpoint presentations. Sometimes we have surveys (live) so I have also been planning to build in the option for a survey slide.
You can take a look at what I have built as an example here (it has some lose ends). Example synchronized video slide presentation (I have no affiliation with Flowplayer. WebVideoDesk, branded on the linked page, is a service I am planning to launch someday.)
I'm currenlty desigining and building a website where I need to embed some audio files (some 60sec extracts from various tracks from a band's album) so people can listen to their material quickly without having to download any files to their desktop etc.
I know QuickTime was a favourite in the past (perhaps it still is?) but I've had some experience with lag and poor load times of a web page because of this. Also, I understand there's an tag in HTML5 but I wonder about compatibility?
Really I just wondered if anyone had any recommendations on the a tried and tested approach to accomplish this?
Not an ideal solution, but I went for a Flash based plugin in the end - seems to work resonably well on compatible devices (shame it's not particularly well supported on mobiles/tablets etc. though).
Give 'dewplayer' a Google if you're interested...
EDIT JAN 2014 - No Longer relevant answer has been played out in the mean time.
This is a cross post. I've already posted the question to flexcoders.
We work in flex as a technology. However a potential client has stated that they are worried about the lifespan of flex as a technology. Especially as apple doesn't support it on their mobile devices, and the increasing support for HTML5 within browsers.
What I would like is to be able to show them some figures about any large adopters. Especially in enterprise. Just to show that it isn't some flash in the pan technology. (No pun indended)
For those interested you can view my original question.
There are many very large enterprises using Flex. Check out some of the testimonials and the Flex Showcase.
Does your client deal with video? If so, then it is likely that over the course of the next 5-10 years the HTML5 video tag could replace Flash as the default video player on the web. However, even if HTML5 chips away at Flash's relevance as a video player; why would that affect Flex's ability to provide a Smart Application GUI?
Does your client build games? It is possible--although I believe unlikely--that the HTML5 Canvas element will be used for a lot of web games. IF this aspect of HTML5 chips away at Flash's relevance as a web game platform, why would that affect Flex's ability to provide a smart Application GUI?
Additionally, why did your client choose Flex over an AJAX solution? Would the same reason apply to an HTML5 choice?
It is also probable that Adobe will keep innovating The Flash Player and Flex faster than HTML5. Flex has a mature toolset with lots of support.
I'd also ask why is it important for your client to provide applications support on mobile devices? The answer to that question will have a big affect on the client's decision whether to use Flash or not.
I don't have any specific numbers or case studies to share, though. YouTube had a Blog post about why they chose Flash. So did Hulu. Of course, I do not know if either of them are using Flex.
This should be an large adopter: SAP
I want so serve some videos on my site. They are available as .MP4 files gotten from a FlipShare camera.
Now I tried converting them to WMV (which succeeded, but when embedded in html in a <object id='mediaPlayer' width='320' height='285' classid='CLSID:22d6f312-b0f6-11d0-94ab-0080c74c7e95' etc' tag, users have to install an addon and the user experience of 10 Windows Media Players on the site isn't just so good.)
So then I looked at youtube and wondered how they do it, but I can't figure out what format they convert the video to.
So my question is: What format do I have to convert my video to, to show it in a player which does not need to be installed in the users browser. What tool do i need and what is the html code to embed such a video?
As you can see: starting from scratch.
PS: I often hear: This or that file extension is just a container, there can be anything inside. If you're using this in your answer, can you explain this to me, because I never understood this. For me a .cs is a c# file and a .doc a Word file, and not 'a container'.
This isn't an easy question. The basic answer is that you need to use a format that the user's computer already supports. There is no one answer to this question. YouTube encodes videos as MP4 and embeds them in the page with a Flash-based movie player, and Flash is pretty widely supported, but you'll notice that Flash isn't available on a lot of mobile platforms — so anybody using an iPhone is shut out if you go the Flash route.
HTML5 introduces the video tag, which is meant to solve this problem once and for all, but there's still a hiccup even there — most HTML5-enabled browsers support h.264-encoded video, but Mozilla supports Ogg Theora instead. YouTube is currently experimenting with a <video>-based player, so this does seem like the future.
I believe the current best practice to support the most people possible is to encode as h.264, try to serve as a <video> element, and have a Flash-based player as a fallback if that doesn't work (which can play the same h.264 file).
I'd say the most popular solution at the moment - utilized by YouTube and other major video portals - is H.264 encoded Flash-based Video. Flash can play Video since... I think Version 8 or 9, and has since gained significant market share.
My personal favourite Flash player is LongTail Player, but it isn't free for commercial use.
Here's a SO question with a list of Flash based players including open source ones.
Flash won't play on iPhone and iPad, though.
If you want to support computers with Flash Player 9 (I've seen some around, but I don't have any hard numbers) you will need to encode FLV files (which use a codec named Sorenson I think).
The upcoming alternative is HTML 5 Video but suport for that in browsers is nowhere near a major market share.
This question requires a re-answer now that it's no longer 2010 and HTML5 videos (as utilized by most video hosting sites) and chunk-based videos (sent as responses to periodic XHR requests - as utilized by Youtube) are the norm. While there is no best way to add video to your site, Flash is definitely nowhere close to even being good as of the time of writing of this answer.
The simple un-researched answer is: Just use a video tag and it'll work out!
This is simple and intuitive, and should work fine in many of your use-cases.
The researched answer is: Unfortunately, upload the video on Youtube and embed it on your site.
The pros and cons of embedding on Youtube over just having a video tag:
The pros:
Allows you to offer your video in a multitude of qualities.
Very bandwidth efficient. Youtube is bandwidth efficient for your users since it reencodes videos, and is also bandwidth efficient for you since you'll no longer be serving your videos off your own hosting.
Offers features like closed captions, automatic subs, playing at multiple speeds, full screen player, etc.
The cons:
It's a very heavily monetized service, chances are they'll want to put ads on your video if any of its content isn't 100% originally yours.
It has very strict laws/terms and conditions that you need to adhere to, at least in my opinion.
It tracks your users. If your application requires privacy and you can't rely on your users to protect themselves, then Youtube isn't ideal.
Other alternatives that mix the pros and cons of those two options are:
Using a Javascript video library to get HTML5 video along with some of the pros of using youtube, but none of its cons.
Using FFMPEG on the server side, for bandwidth issues.
Using some CDN that supports video to deliver the video, for reliability and bandwidth issues. My current favorites are ones that rely on service workers and the bittorent protocol, to stream from users to each other, but whether that suits you or not depends on your application.
Using AWS storage services to store the video, and AWS gateway/CDN services to serve it, which might be a great solution cost-wise and efficiency-wise if you don't want youtube but don't want to store videos on whatever infrastructure is serving your website.
Sources of this answer: Personal experience. As much as I didn't want to answer from experience, this question really needed a new answer! Feel free to edit it with something more concrete.
Converting your video MPEG-4 with H.264 will get you 97% coverage on current browsers across desktop and mobile, although some Android devices don't support hardware acceleration for this format. To address that you could also serve WebM with VP9 codec.
I wrote up a summary of browser support that might be useful: https://stuartk.com/posts/whats-the-best-html-video-format-to-serve/