Rich internet applications, part 3: HTML 5 video player

HTML 5 (hypertext markup language, version 5) is the most recent addition to the rich internet application (RIA) technology set. The core idea behind this new standard is to reduce the web browsers dependency on proprietary plug-ins, such as Adobe Flash™, etc., thus dramatically increasing the web application-browser compatibility level. Browser compatibility and compliance with w3c (world-wide-web consortium) standards provides tremendous advantage of web applications over their “installable” desktop/laptop counterparts: the latter are heavily platform and operating system (OS) dependent and typically are much more labor intensive due to installation/upgrade/maintenance requirements. To the contrary, web applications are essentially platform/OS independent, adhered to the concept of “thin client”, which in simple words means “zero installables and maintenance free”.

The HTML 5 specification is still a work in progress, but all major browser manufacturers already made a move toward compliance with this emerging standard: most of its features are already supported by Mozilla Firefox version 3.6+ and presumably by a new version of Internet Explorer (IE9), recently announced by Microsoft.
The cornerstone components of rich internet application are video and audio players, embedded into web page, such as YouTube based on Adobe Flash™ or Silverlight Media Player. Such feature significantly extends the web page interactivity, responsiveness, aesthetic appeal and overall user experience. Embedded players could serve as an efficient educational tool, providing instructional materials, tutorials in rather inspirational and intuitive manner.

HTML 5 specs addressed the compelling need for a standardized way of presenting video and audio content by introducing the revolutionary new set of elements and corresponding tags, namely:

Refer to the resources listed below for more details and sample implementation of HTML 5 web applications.

Copyright© 2010 Alexander Bell

Resources

1. HTML 5 specs
2. HTML 5 Tag references
3. HTML 5 demos and examples
4. HTML 5 samples and tutorials
5. HTML 5 video player with ambilight effects
6. Video on the web
7. Microsoft Silverlight™ Media Player: tutorial and samples
8. Microsoft Silverlight™ media player: demo
9. Rich internet applications: Silverlight™, YouTube™: tutorial and samples
10. Embedded YouTube™ video player: tutorial and downloads
11. Embedded YouTube™ video player with custom playlist: demo