Using the HTML5 Audio and Video APIs

There are two main benefits to using these HTML 5 media tags over previous video-embedding techniques usually videos embedded using the Flash, QuickTime, or Windows Media plugins that aim to make life easier for users and developers:

• The new audio and video tags remove deployment hurdles by being part of the native browser environment. Although some plugins have high install rates, they are often blocked in controlled corporate environments. Some users choose to disable these plugins due to the... ostentatious… advertising displays those plugins are also capable of, which also removes their capability to be used for media playback. Plugins are also separate vectors of attack for security issues. And plugins often have difficulty integrating their displays with the rest of browser content, causing clipping or transparency issues with certain site designs. Because plugins use a self-contained rendering model that is different from that of the base web page, developers face difficulties if elements such as popup menus or other visual elements need to cross plugin boundaries in a page.

• The media elements expose a common, integrated, and scriptable API to the document. As a developer, your use of the new media elements allows very simple ways to script the control and playback of content.