I need to make a basic audio control: one audio file, play and pause buttons, no more.
I cannot use Flash at all - this website will only be used if the client does not have flash enabled.
HTML5 does not seem to be a good solution because my target clients (who do not enable Flash) most likely won't have modern browsers. Even worse, Safari does not seem to play the best solution available (jPlayer).
The lastest versions of all the main browsers (IE, Chrome, FF, Safari, Mobile Safari, Android) can play audio natively using the HTML5 audio element (so long as the media is encoded in a supported format).
IE6,7 and 8 can only play audio directly in the browser with the help of plugs-ins (e.g. Quicktime, Flash etc.).
So, if you have IE8 or less i'm afraid you cannot play audio directly in the browser without Flash or another plug-in.
Related
I am doing some help videos, they are required to work on all browsers and devices - ipod/pad/phone android etc.
My understanding was you can do this with HTML5 and have fallbacks for each device/browser?
However i have had to add javascript to detect the browser then go off accordingly to different html pages where the video will play on that browser or device.
Surely there must be a simpler way to do this in ONE html page? What formats are used for each browser?
I am using ChromeFrame to get around the IE issues too.
Thanks
I recommend looking into video.js which takes care of browser support detection.
For video formats you can use mp4 and WebM together with video.js it should cover all browsers.
From the videoJS website...
Web Browsers
Whether a user has the latest version of a browser, or something
ancient like Internet Explorer 6, they'll get a similar experience
with Video.js which uses a super-lightweight Flash player for browsers
that don't support HTML5 video.
Video Formats
Web video formats can get complicated. Video.js can make it easier by using a single MP4 file for all users, or additional
formats like WebM, Ogg, and even HTTP Live Streaming for greater HTML5
compatibility.
PS. Be aware that there will be visual differences between browsers (mostly older IE browsers), especially when the Flash fallback kicks in. The fullscreen option is the most notable difference.
I really have researched this but I am still confused. In all of the HTML5 compatible browsers (although in this case I'm talking about Chrome 20 and Safari for Windows 5.1.7), if I specify some video using tags, is the idea that this should play without the user having to install plug-ins? Or will the user have to install a plugin such as WMP / Quicktime? Thanks in advance.
They will play without plugins. One of the key purposes of HTML5 is that you dont need anything but the browser to display content...and it works on all kinds of devices.
No, no plugins are required. The code required to play the video comes as part of the browser.
The problem with entrusting this to the browser, though, is there is a current inconsistency in which video/audio formats each browser supports.
For example, Chrome and IE9 will play MP3 audio, but Firefox and Opera play a different format.
I am embedding a video feature on my website, and I am planning to use HTML5 player to play those videos.
2 questions:
1. Which formats should I encode the uploaded videos to (I need mobile support + PC + mac).
2. How can I prevent people from downloading the movie (HTML5 plays directly from my CDN, hence the link can be fetched easily)
Can CDN protect the content by issuing an access token that will expire in X time?
Thanks all!
1)
If you need to support also Firefox 3.6 you will need to ensure at least 3 formats: mp4, webm and ogv. Otherwise mp4 and webm are enough. mp4 is loaded by the apple mobile devices (ipad, iphone), Safari and it can be loaded by a flash player (supposing you have installed flash player plugin 9r3 as a minimum version). webm is supported by firefox and chrome
http://diveintohtml5.info/video.html#what-works
2)
take a look at How to prevent downloading HTML5 videos
First, Zencoder has a fantastic page on HTML5 video encoding recommendations:
The minimum for HTML5 video is MP4 + WebM or Ogg (or both), using the MP4 version for Flash fallback.
For mobile support, one H.264/MP4 output can take you a long way. 2-3 enables better quality and wider compatibility.
Second, at the moment, your videos will be downloadable with minimal effort (e.g., View Source). See the related question, "Is there a way to use DRM on HTML5 video?"
The HTML5 specification allows for any video format.It is the browser implementation that determines what formats are actually supported.
MP4 container with H.264 Video and AAC Audio
MP4/H.264 is supported by Safari and IE9+. You may find support in some versions of Chrome.
WebM container with VP8 Video and Vorbis Audio
WebM/VP8 is supported by Firefox, Chrome and Opera.
Ogg container with Theora Video and Vorbis Audio
Ogg/Theora is supported by Firefox, Chrome and Opera.
Bottom-Line
Use more than one format to be assured your client doesn't see blank frame.
As far as the Content Protection, I am bit short on that knowledge and also suppose that it doesn't make sense to go after this issue when your user might be running a slow connection
For content protection. seems like, today there is no straight forward way to do this. However, there is an active interest inside HTML5 camp where some form of DRM can be applied for this.
See this: http://gigaom.com/video/mdialog-tackles-html5-video-security/
I have to play an ogg audio file in the background when the user hits a "Music On" button. Currently the page uses an AUDIO tag, and it works in Firefox, but not in IE (confirmed by this table).
Is there a really cross-browser way to play an ogg audio file, if possible without Flash?
I am aware of the existence of specific libraries like JPlayer or SoundManager, but do I really have to use one of them? After all, it is just to play a sound...
Forget about cross-browser. Stick with ogg. It's much better than mp3 in every way. Tell people to change their browser to one which supports ogg (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Opera). If they don't want to change, then forget about them; they don't deserve to hear your audio. If your client doesn't understand this, leave him and let him waste money on one developer after another until he finds a "yes man" developer who will give him a terrible website that will be a nightmare to use and will need completely redeveloped in a year's time.
The Company I work for has dropped support for IE6 for apps and websites and dropped support for IE7 when it comes to apps. Personally, I don't want to be developing for IE at all until I met a friend of mine working elsewhere. She was allowed to work from home, but she had to use RDP (Remote Desktop Connection in Windows) thats supported as a web interface only via IE. Some companies use Windows Group policies to disable USB drives etc. The terminals in these companies can have IE only! So as much as I would hate to admit, cross browser compatibility is a serious issue.
Flash would be the number one choice of plugin to play ogg files. Now, the following scenarios may occur:
iOS (iPad and iPhone) : HTML5 Audio Tag
Android / Chrome / Safari : HTML5 Audio Tag
Opera
Firefox
IE
For 3, 4 and 5 it really depends on the user. Even if they have one of Real Player, QuickTime or Windows Media Player, the would be able to play ogg files. There is a case where the specific ogg codec is not installed. In this case they will get a prompt on the top of their browser, telling them to install the specific codec.
We are talking about people insisting on using IE or insisting on a really really old version of firefox and who don't have WMP (by default on Windows), RealPlayer or QuickTIme installed but have an Internet connection.
Even jQuery leaves out 0.0001% of users ! :-P
You can probably consider using a .wav file, but I'm not sure that works.
The simple answer: no, there's no way to do it without Flash. My approach: simply create a script that converts a single file to multiple encodings.
Apple has a spec for using .m3u as a playlist file of .ts video segments. I understand it works on iOS devices and OSX Safari. Is it supported by any other browsers? If not, are there any other methods of segmenting a video into parts for independent download and playing?
Here's the apple spec for video segmentation:
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/StreamingMediaGuide/Introduction/Introduction.html
"Is it supported by any other browsers?": No
"If not, are there any other methods of segmenting a video into parts for independent download and playing?": Adobe is making an effort to do something similar but I have yet to see it in production anywhere. They probably will not be compatible, at least at first.
CODECs matter. Hence, FireFox will likely never natively support it as Mozilla hates h.264. I'm also skeptical about native Chrome support too, but time will tell.