I can't get converted video to work in HTML5...

mccdaddy · 02-10-2012, 10:11 PM

Hi. I love the straight-forward, Flash-free coding for video in HTML5. I'm able to embed .mp4 onto my website but, strangely, if I convert an .avi or .3gp file to .mp4 (using Format Factory) it will not play with the video tag.

Has anyone else encountered this?

Arbitrator · 02-11-2012, 05:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mccdaddy

I'm able to embed .mp4 onto my website but, strangely, if I convert an .avi or .3gp file to .mp4 (using Format Factory) it will not play with the video tag.

Which codec is used to encode your video? MP4 is just a container. If the container doesn't contain a format that your browser supports, nothing is going to play.

As far as I'm aware, the supported formats/containers are Theora (Ogg), H.264 (MP4), and VP8 (WebM).

mccdaddy · 02-11-2012, 06:00 PM

That's what I was afraid of; I know nothing about codecs.

I went to wikipedia and did some reading on codecs but I still don't have a real clear grasp. I did download a Codec Identification Tool and analyzed the .mp4 that did play vs the converted one. The first one showed: "Codec- avc1, Name- H.264/MPEG-4 AVC" while the converted .mp4 was "Codec- mp4v, Name- MPEG-4 Video", so I see your point about the H.264 format.

Any idea if there is a way to convert .avi, .3gp, .wmv, etc. to the proper codec for use with the HTML5 video tag?

mccdaddy · 02-11-2012, 06:56 PM

I found a great little program, Freemake Video Converter, that does the job. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

mccd

Arbitrator · 02-12-2012, 05:52 AM

If you're using H.264/MP4, I'd keep in mind that Chrome, Firefox, and Opera don't support that format natively; they support the Theora/Ogg and VP8/WebM formats. There's a support listing at Wikipedia.

mccdaddy · 02-13-2012, 03:21 AM

Thanks for the heads-up, Arbitrator. It might be a bit trickier finding a converter for Ogg and WebM video codecs.

Perhaps I'll encourage my visitors to only use IE

mccd