Staff Blog / Try our new HTML5 player!

by Brad Dougherty
January 21st, 2010

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: http://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!