embedded video... what is the new way?

MuGeN · 15 Sep 2010 at 17:17

hi guys,

just wondering what is now the current standard and the best way to embed? i'm assuming its .mov since flash is now out the window especially since the birth of the iphone/ipad etc...

what is the best method?

Russinating · 15 Sep 2010 at 17:43

MuGeN said:
just wondering what is now the current standard and the best way to embed? i'm assuming its .mov since flash is now out the window especially since the birth of the iphone/ipad etc...

lolwut? Let me guess, Apple's your deity and you believe everything they say without questioning? They don't support Flash because they didn't make it and therefore can't make any money from it. Simple as.

To be honest, the easiest way is to just embed YouTube (providing you can upload to there in the first place). Combined with a lightbox plugin it's extremely versatile and I still haven't been able to match their compression quality. Plus it's extremely user friendly - everybody knows how to use it (mute/skip/make fullscreen etc) - and it's fairly mobile friendly with a direct link.

Other than that try Longtail JW Player.

Confused · 15 Sep 2010 at 17:52

YouTube is probably the easiest.

Plus - on any iDevice, clicking on a YouTube embed will just launch the native player, anyway.

V4NT0M · 15 Sep 2010 at 18:04

Youtube or flash, longtail is what I use, flowplayer is pretty good too.

But there's no reason to start using anything else because of the iphone and ipad.

Edward01 · 15 Sep 2010 at 18:30

YouTube is good but I find the interface a bit naff to be honest, can really ruin the design of a website. I try to use vimeo now where ever possible, looks much better embedded.

mr.sly · 15 Sep 2010 at 18:49

Youtube with the HTML5 embed or even Vimeo?

Or offer a h.264 and .ogg versions of the videos with the <video> tag.

Tripnologist · 15 Sep 2010 at 19:05

As everyone above has basically said or demonstrated, don't believe Apple. I hate flash but .flv is still the main way to embed video.

Youtube is great if you don't want to pay for bandwidth.
If you'd rather not use a third party to hose, I used to prefer jwplayer over flowplayer just because it looked considerably better but the last flowplayer update has turned the tables. Flowplayer looks sweet and is easy to drop in. Advertisements are easy as well, if you need them.

Sirrel Squirrel · 17 Sep 2010 at 12:43

I use longtail with .mp4 files.

MuGeN · 17 Sep 2010 at 12:55

its not a case of believing apple... i know enough people with ipads and iphones to warrant making my videos work for them...

people can moan about the politics of it all they like but the fact is a potential customer might be missing out on content, simple as that.

so, what is the best cross platform, slickest way of embedding video

Russinating · 17 Sep 2010 at 13:25

MuGeN said:
its not a case of believing apple... i know enough people with ipads and iphones to warrant making my videos work for them...

people can moan about the politics of it all they like but the fact is a potential customer might be missing out on content, simple as that.

so, what is the best cross platform, slickest way of embedding video

As said, YouTube.

How many of your iPad and iPhone buddys don't have a non-iOS based device? Seeing as 99% of sites use Flash for this kind of content, including the biggest players (ie Google, YouTube, Microsoft, Vimeo, Facebook etc), then I don't think people are really going to be surprised that they can't view your video on their phone.

And again, as said, using YouTube will allow native-playback anyway.

Russinating · 17 Sep 2010 at 13:29

Oh and this may be of interest as to why the likes of the above aren't really bothered about scrapping Flash and pouring millions into HTML5 development just yet.