Training Guide: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3 Ebook

437

Chapter 11 HTML5 supports multimedia

CHAPTER 11 HTML5 supports multimedia

O

ne of the most popular features of HTML5 is its support for multimedia. In the past, you

needed to load a plug-in to play video or audio. Probably the most popular multimedia

plug-in is Flash. This chapter examines the HTML5 support for playing audio and video.

Lessons in this chapter:

■■Lesson 1: Playing video 437

■■Lesson 2: Playing audio 443

■■Lesson 3: Using the HTMLMediaElement object 447

Before you begin

To complete this book, you must have some understanding of web development. This

chapter requires the hardware and software listed in the “System requirements” section in

the book’s Introduction.

Lesson 1: Playing video

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) introduced the video element for the purpose of

playing videos and movies. The intent was to offer a standard way to play video on the web

without requiring plug-ins. This goal has been circumvented by lack of agreement about

which video formats should be supported in web browsers.

Currently, the W3C does not specify which video formats browsers should support.

Browsers can decide which format they want to support, so the developer must provide

formats that are available across most browsers.

After this lesson, you will be able to:

■■Describe the common video formats available on the Internet.

■■Implement the <video> element.

Estimated lesson time: 20 minutes