YouTube has today announced that its video streaming and publication service will from today finally default to the HTML5 video tag leaving the ageing Flash plugin to fade away a little quicker.
YouTube explains that over the past four years they have been working with browser creators and their user base to create the prefect HTML 5 support for YouTube, and now from today can use the HTML5 video tag by default in Chrome, IE 11, Safari 8 and in beta versions of Firefox.
YouTube explains a little more about the new YouTube HTML5 video tag and the technologies they have included to make the YouTube viewing experience even smoother across a wider range of devices and browsers :
“In the past, the choice of delivery platform (Flash, Silverlight, etc) and content protection technology (Access, PlayReady) were tightly linked, as content protection was deeply integrated into the delivery platform and even the file format. Encrypted Media Extensions separate the work of content protection from delivery, enabling content providers like YouTube to use a single HTML5 video player across a wide range of platforms. Combined with Common Encryption, we can support multiple content protection technologies on different platforms with a single set of assets, making YouTube play faster and smoother.
HTML5 lets you take advantage of the open VP9 codec, which gives you higher quality video resolution with an average bandwidth reduction of 35 percent. These smaller files allow more people to access 4K and HD at 60FPS — and videos start 15-80 percent faster. We’ve already served hundreds of billions of VP9 videos, and you can look for more about VP9 in a future post.
Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) streaming is critical for providing a quality video experience for viewers – allowing us to quickly and seamlessly adjust resolution and bitrate in the face of changing network conditions. ABR has reduced buffering by more than 50 percent globally and as much as 80 percent on heavily-congested networks. MediaSource Extensions also enable live streaming in game consoles like Xbox and PS4, on devices like Chromecast and in web browsers.”
For more information on the new YouTube HTML 5 tag jump over to the official YouTube Engineering and Developers Blog website for details.
Source: YouTube