Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

YouTube Starts Looking at HTML 5 for Video

Geoff Duncan
By
youtube_logo
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Video sharing mega-site YouTube has unveiled a new experimental video player built around audio and video technology supported in HTML 5. The service is in limited testing and, currently, only works in Apple’s Safari browser (version 4 or newer), Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer wit Google’s Chrome Frame installed. However, users who sign up for the beta can start to see what a version of YouTube without Flash might look like.

Right now, the vast majority of video available via the Web is served up via Adobe Flash. While Adobe is certainly thrilled about that situation, it does mean that video is being handled via proprietary technology and browser plug-ins—and, as history has shown, that means most Web video is rife with stability, performance, and security issues. The developing HTML 5 standard looks to improve on that situation by including support for open audio and video formats and playback without requiring browser plugins—so long as they have a browser with HTML5 support and appropriate codecs.

Recommended Videos

YouTube’s HTML 5 experiment currently has a number of limitations: no full-screen mode is available, and users won’t be able to see videos with captions or annotations with HTML5—they’ll load using Flash instead. Similarly, videos with ads will load using Flash.

Related

YouTube says it plans to expand the HTML 5 player’s capabilities going forward. Although HTML 5’s audio and video capabilities are not expected to rival Flash as a platform for interactive page elements or the all-important embedded advertising systems YouTube continues to develop as a source of revenue, support for HTML 5 video playback could expand YouTube’s footprint into areas where Flash support is weak or doesn’t exist at all, as well as make YouTube a more secure and stable experience for many users.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Geoff Duncan
Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
I couldn’t live without this simple desktop YouTube feature
YouTube app running on an Amazon Fire Max 11.

Big YouTube fan? I know I am. I have ASMR content rolling all day while I'm writing away, so yes, I'm one of those people who pays for YouTube Premium. But one feature I've been using a ton recently doesn't require a premium membership -- the excellent picture in picture mode.

I'm a big synthwave nerd too. That's not relevant, I just love The Midnight. Image used with permission by copyright holder
How to use YouTube picture in picture
If you typically watch YouTube on your phone, you've probably come across this feature already. You just swipe away from the app to 'exit' it while you're watching a video, and it will appear as a small window in the corner of your phone.

Read more
YouTube tries new way of tackling ad blockers
Youtube video on mobile. Credits: YouTube official.

YouTube could be about to launch a widespread crackdown on folks using ad blockers.

Reports emerged last month that YouTube was deploying pop-ups to warn against the use of ad-blocking tools. But now it's taking the action one step further.

Read more
Forget text-to-image; this AI makes videos from your prompts
Watching a video on the iPhone 14 Plus.

You've likely heard about the amazing results realized by text-to-image AI such as Dall-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney. As you might have expected, the revolution is marching onward, with the next target being text-to-video AI tools.

QuickVid generated this video about a DJI Drone and astronauts on Mars.

Read more