Video Improvements

Earlier in this book, we described in detail the current capabilities of the <video> element. While there is still no required video codec specified in HTML 5, Google recently released WebM, a high-quality, royalty-free video codec for the Web. Although not all vendors have agreed to support WebM yet, there is significant momentum behind the format.

Additionally, there is increased demand for improvements in the current controls for HTML 5 video. In order to fully replace plugin-based rendering of video, HTML’s own control will need to introduce better APIs for streaming. Expect this capability to evolve in the next iterations of the media tags; with increased adoption of devices without Flash playback, such as the Apple iPad and iPhone, there is a significant incentive to bring Web video to a large audience with only HTML 5.