Before HTML5, video was a difficult thing to deliver consistently across multiple platforms. Browser compatibility issues made it challenging to get the media to all users. Some video methods required users to install plugins to increase a browser's capabilities. One of the most popular plugins, Flash—Adobe's proprietary media player—became commonplace. But then Apple mobile devices, like the iPhone and iPad, did not support Flash, so this left many users without access to video material. And even after all this, video brings up the matter of internet speeds and data. If your connection is too slow, trying to watch a higher-quality video is very frustrating. And on top of that, if you're using a mobile device, videos will chew up your data.
But each time technology advances, the World Wide Web learns to adapt. HTML5 and video streaming services like YouTube and Vimeo have fixed a number of these issues for us. These tools don't just help with compatibility, but video services often even automatically handle most of the compression steps for us. That's an important step to make online videos more accessible, even on less than stellar internet connections.
Though, of course, if you don't want to be held to a service's guidelines or be required to display advertisements on your video, hosting and adding a video on your own may be the better way to go. For this reason, we'll learn the basics of HTML5 video syntax, file types, and what parts go into the quality and file sizes of videos.
