How to Build a Streaming HTML5 Video Player
Some day, plug-ins will be a thing of the past. At his recent Streaming Media West presentation on how to build a streaming HTML5 video player, Jeff Tapper, chief architect with Digital Primates, started off by explaining the streaming options now in place, and why publishers want to move away from solutions that require plug-ins.
"Our online video options: We have progressive download, which works fairly well across most browsers; the various Real Time protocols—RTP, RTMP, RTSP; and HTTP streaming. The main flavors you'll see with HTTP streaming: Smooth Streaming, HLS, HDS, and, more recently, DASH. The challenge these days: folks want to move away from plug-ins," Tapper said. "In general, from an efficiency point of view, folks tend to agree that HTTP streaming is the most beneficial approach."
While the delivery options are complex, HTML5 video will make files easier to manage.
"Part of the challenge we have is that different devices support things in different ways, and there's a lot of different devices that we have to deal with today," Tapper explained. "There's no one standard that is supported ubiquitously, and that's another major challenge for us. What we end up having, in order to support as many devices as we can, is we end up having media stored and served in several different variations which gets complex to manage."
To hear more, including the coding necessary to create an HTML5 player, watch the video below and download Tapper's presentation.
How to Build a Streaming HTML5 Video Player
With the adoption of Media Source Extensions (MSE) into modern browsers, it is now possible to stream video directly to browsers without plug-ins. This session explores how these players can be built and what video formats can be used. It looks at how MSE and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) work, and how to use them to build modern streaming applications. We also dig into the various formats of content that can be played with an MSE and dive in depth into one such open source project—dash.js, which makes use of the Open Standard MPEG-DASH along with MSE to create a real-world streaming app.
Jeff Tapper, Chief Architect - Digital Primates
Related Articles
Media source extensions, encrypted media extensions, and DASH offer new possibilities for player-based DRM and increase HTML5's appeal to video publishers.
17 Jul 2015
Publishers need a universal solution that works on every desktop and mobile platform, doesn't require plug-ins, and includes DRM. In this panel discussion, three companies offer their services.
14 May 2015
Much has changed since the iPad was released five years ago, with HTML5 video maturing across all platforms.
06 Apr 2015
Steve Heffernan explains how to build a customized HTML5 player. Watch this for everything you need to know.
21 Sep 2012
Matt Frost of the Chrome Web Media Platform team will demonstrate how HTML5 can achieve feature parity with Flash.
09 May 2012