YouTube, Vimeo Ditching Flash for HTML5

[Darth Sushi]

YouTube, Vimeo Ditching Flash for HTML5
By Kevin Parrish, published on January 21, 2010

" YouTube and Vimeo is kicking Adobe's Flash to the curb in favor of the sharp new HTML5.

Both YouTube and Vimeo have announced that they are launching HTML5-based players on their video streaming sites, thus booting out the long-standing champ of multimedia delivery, Adobe Flash. With recent security issues plaguing Adobe products, it's no surprise that media giants such as YouTube are jumping ship. What makes HTML5 special is that the new Web standard doesn't require Adobe's software to stream content to viewers.

On Wednesday, YouTube launched this portal (TestTube) for HTML5 video, however the drawback is that the new technology is only supported in Google Chrome, Apple's Safari Internet browser, and Internet Explorer with Google's Chrome frame installed. Mozilla's Firefox and Opera currently do not work with YouTube's HTML5-based video player.

Vimeo, on the other hand, isn't launching a separate portal: the service will place an HTML5-related link below each video so that consumers have a choice. Like YouTube's portal, Vimeo's HTML5 vidoes will work with Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer with Chrome frame installed--Firefox and Opera will not display the special HTML5 links.

Outside security issues, both companies can now offer videos to devices that do not support Adobe Flash. According to CNET, Vimeo reports that 90-percent of its videos will work in HTML5; YouTube did not provide numbers. However, YouTube videos viewed in HTML5 will supposedly be free of ads and user-created information. "

Source: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/HTML5-Yo...news-5623.html

[bobbintb]

funny how the previous article about firefox says it does support html5

[tesco]

funny how the previous article about firefox says it does support html5

We'll probably see it working in firefox soon as well.
I'm guessing that either they didn't want to develop for a browser that was still in beta (ff 3.6 came out today), or the current implementation of html5 in ff3.6 is not complete yet.

[phauk]

tesco, it wasn't today bro, firefox 3.6 was released 2days ago (21st)

[SonsOfLiberty]

tesco, it wasn't today bro, firefox 3.6 was released 2days ago (21st)

He made that comment "yesterday"..

Also that's dumb founding they don't support Opera or Firefox, since Firefox is #1 now and Opera is quickly charging IE rear, just doesn't make sense, unless Mozilla got notified late in the process of building v3.6 and are going to have a update/plug-in/add-on....

[tesco]

tesco, it wasn't today bro, firefox 3.6 was released 2days ago (21st)

He made that comment "yesterday"..

Also that's dumb founding they don't support Opera or Firefox, since Firefox is #1 now and Opera is quickly charging IE rear, just doesn't make sense, unless Mozilla got notified late in the process of building v3.6 and are going to have a update/plug-in/add-on....

It has nothing to do with picking favorite browsers.
It's all about which browsers support what they're trying to accomplish, in this case it is only available from webkit (safari and chrome).

I was just reading about the <video> tag.
Trident (ie) supports nothing.
Gecko (FF) and Presto (Opera) support 'OGG Theora'
Webkit (Safari/Chrome) support 'H.264 and others'

Youtube uses H.264 I believe. So until opera and ff start supporting more than just OGG we probably won't see youtube working on them for a while (they would have to convert every movie ).
For IE, we will have to wait at least until IE9.

[SonsOfLiberty]

Well, Youtube will be getting alot less hits then, if they change to that format and FF doesn't support it and don't leave the other site open....

I've been downloading them anyway...using YouTubeHDTransfer

I download any worth video in HD 720/1080....then in turn plug em' to PS3 or 360 since there already in H264 and MP4.

[tesco]

Well, Youtube will be getting alot less hits then, if they change to that format and FF doesn't support it and don't leave the other site open....

They'll never do that

What I think they will do is make youtube use the html5 video player by default, and for browsers that don't support it will fallback to the flash player.
They'll have to do this for at least a couple of years. To be honest, I think it will take at least 6 years until IE9 has the highest IE marketshare (remember IE is highest marketshare right now so they cannot alienate the majority of their traffic).

[hwyang97]

Well, Youtube will be getting alot less hits then, if they change to that format and FF doesn't support it and don't leave the other site open....

They'll never do that

What I think they will do is make youtube use the html5 video player by default, and for browsers that don't support it will fallback to the flash player.
They'll have to do this for at least a couple of years. To be honest, I think it will take at least 6 years until IE9 has the highest IE marketshare (remember IE is highest marketshare right now so they cannot alienate the majority of their traffic).

Nice Idea. I agree too.