Staff Blog / Try our new HTML5 player!
We're rolling out a new beta test today: the HTML5 player!
What's the HTML5 player, you ask? Simply put, it's an alternative to our current Flash player that looks and works almost exactly the same way. What are the benefits?
- The player loads right away -- no more spinning butterfly thingy
- You can jump anywhere in the video, without having to wait for it to buffer
- Smoother, less jumpy playback (we hope)
That said, there are some drawbacks:
- It's a beta test -- it might be buggy!
- It only works for about 25% of you: you must be running the latest versions of Safari, Chrome, or IE with Chrome Frame installed.
- It cannot go full screen. Unfortunately this is a limitation of the browsers right now. We are working on adding at least full-window support in the next day or so.
- It only works on Vimeo.com right now, embed code will still be Flash.
- "Only" 90% of videos uploaded in the last year will work in the new player. All told, about 35% of all videos will still require the standard Flash player. In this case, Vimeo will automatically switch for you. It should just always work.
To enable the HTML5 player, click the "Switch to HTML5 player" link below any video. Enjoy!!!
One final note: those of you who have followed the development of HTML5 probably know video can be a contentious issue (for more on why, read here: diveintohtml5.org/video.html). Almost every thread on the internet about HTML5 devolves into some kind of flamewar. Please don't comment here extolling the virtues of open source or unencumbered codecs. We know, it's our job to know, and that conversation has been had a million times. If you really feel like you need to talk about it, please do so in the Feature Request forum. The simple fact is right now h264 allows us the most flexibility to display on many devices and many players with the same file. When that changes, so will we. That's all there is to it, thanks for your understanding!
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369 Comments
STEAMCLAM PRO
its on now
kilinkis
i dont see the link below the videos, but anyway, great initiative! i will use it
Andrew Pile Staff
Because you are not running one of the browsers mentioned in the blog post.
Seán Sloane
I am running Safari 4.0.4 which is the latest version and I don't have the option either...
Article19 Plus
settle down chuckles!
Brian Moura
The HTML 5 link isn't visible here on the supported browsers.
But as they say, it's still in beta... !
Vincent Jamin
anyway this is surely gona be successfull !
vince from encoreunblogseo.info
Matt Cox
Brilliant news guys! Thanks for adding it. Glad to see YouTube weren't the only ones on this =)
Andrew Pile Staff
We're showing you as using Firefox 3.0.6.
holycowboy Plus
I'm using Safari 4.0.4 and I'm not seeing the link on any videos.
Likewise Chrome 4.0.246.49
Sandeep Verma
HTML5 Audio Player with Playlist HTML5 audio the element enable native audio playback within the browser. It supports all browsers i.e. iOS, Android, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, IE and Opera.
html5.svnlabs.com/
the grumets Plus
the new vimeo sucks i cant upload videos and all my flash player is the latest and i have followed compression guidlines, and its harder to go through peoples channels n see stats, u used to b awesome vimeo now u r not
Bluelife3D
your flash player is the worst player on the internets and you can't even produce an html5 player with compatibility with firefox? really, what is wrong with you people?
Pennie Melendez
It works fine in Firefox.
art
when i switch to html5 player i saw only 1 second video and heard few seconds audio, and all vimeo pages on chrome were stuck
Publistudio Ltda | Video y Web
Nice try
Bash Vi
can't get it working in Firefox 17. I compiled it with gstreamer support so it works just fine with h.264 HTML5 Videos on Youtube and Kickstarter, but I can't get it working on Vimeo. It won't display me the video player elements.
I am fully aware that Firefox does normally NOT support h.264 and that this is NOT webM.
Fee Quilter Tune
@Bash Vi
Same here, Firefox 17 compiled with --enable-gstreamer, it works everywhere but just not here (not natively; with some hooks and scripts it works). It seems that the "Switch to HTML5" player option appears only if the user-agent of the browser matches a whitelist of user-agents on vimeo's side. Furthermore, it seems that user-agent for this options is gained directly via js, and not via header, making it difficult to debug/try against vimeo with just headers spoofed (quirksmode.org/js/detect.html) - plus, detection via js is quite questionable for this feature.
So, vimeo could check user-agents via headers; or, add the option to all potentially-enabled browsers (some Fx on the nightly channel - on some platforms - are out there with h264 enabled); or, just accept webm. It has really improved; at hq, using sane defaults, given the same size, I find the output possibly better.
Emilio Sanchez
HTML5 video doesn't play. Get the Oops notice everytime I try it ( chrome 24 ) so I had to switch back to Flash, unfortunately..
Brice Leroy
Not that I want to be a party pooper, but I never been able to play videos that way, it always showed me "Oops! Something broke. Please try again later!"