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YouTube Offers Experimental Opt-In HTML5 Video

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the step-in-the-right-direction dept.

bonch writes "YouTube is now offering the experimental option to view all YouTube videos using HTML5 in H.264 format. Supported browsers are Chrome, Safari, and the ChromeFrame plug-in for Internet Explorer. Captions, ads, and annotations aren't yet supported but are coming soon."

6 of 265 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Should be a selling feature... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, you could sign into an account on YouTube and turn them off.

  2. Re:Hmm by BhaKi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Firefox supports the video tag. The h.264 support can be added by installing mplayer browser plugin or xine browser plugin.

    --
    The largest prime factor of my UID is 263267.
  3. No. Firefox is Ogg/Theora + Vorbis only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    No. Firefox video tag is free formats only. Tools like mplayer are a cesspool of security holes— they aren't designed to be exposed to hostile content. The video tag requires pretty deep browser integration, ... only apple supports using the native infrastructure and even they disable 99% of their features for security reasons (e.g. try a mov with hyperlinks in it).

    Mozilla is committed to an open web, and you can't get their with a wink and a nod and asking users to install codec software which is illegal everywhere in the developed world. (Including europe. I'm so tired of seeing people characterized codec licensing as a US thing— there are more European patents on codecs than US patents)

  4. Works great in my side by side comparison by jschen · · Score: 5, Informative

    Using Safari/OSX (latest version of each) on a first generation Core2 Duo laptop (2.33 GHz), I tried watching the same video (containing no ads, annotations, etc) at the same size using both the default Flash option and the beta HTML5 option. CPU use was a steady 33-34% during playback in Flash. A steady 12-13% in HTML5. Seems like a winner to me.

  5. Re:What about firefox (ogg video)? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Being a codec snob is trendy.

    The reality of it is much less exciting.

    Youtube already supports several versions of the files, they could probably drop the flash 7 compatibility in exchange for Theora. In terms of numbers of client Ogg/Theora for firefox is probably a better deal than flash 7. Adding one more to a half dozen isn't a tripling.

  6. Re:Should be a selling feature... by nine-times · · Score: 5, Informative

    Part of the problem is that h264 licensing fees are generally hidden. You don't pay for a license, your hardware/software vendor does. Apple and Microsoft and Google all buy the licenses for you and include them in their products. It's hard to convey the importance of the licenses for non-free codecs if they seem to be free.