YouTube announces that it will initialize movie playback in HTML5 instead of Flash

ByJosé Tomás Albornoz

When playing a movie on YouTube, a player suitable for the viewing environment of the user is automatically selected, so far, if the user is compatible with Flash, the Flash player is prioritized specifications It was getting. However, YouTube announces that movie playback in HTML5 instead of Flash will be executed by default.

YouTube Engineering and Developers Blog: YouTube now defaults to HTML5
http://youtube-eng.blogspot.jp/2015/01/youtube-now-defaults-to-html5_27.html


It was from 2010 that YouTube began supporting movie playback in HTML5, and at that time Flash was supported by users more than HTML 5 in movie playback. This is because, when streaming a movie, the size of the content is automatically changed according to the communication environment of the viewer side "ABR (adaptive bit rate)It seems that the point that HTML 5 did not correspond to "was big.

However, YouTube has repeatedly coordinated with web browser developers and various other companies, and finally when playing YouTube movies on major browsers such as Chrome, Internet Explorer 11, Safari 8, Firefox Beta, HTML5 It is revealed that movie playback by default is done.

ByThomas van de Weerd

Such key technology of HTML 5 is such a technology as below.

◆Media Source Extensions
"Media Source Extensions" is a JavaScript API for HTML5 created for streaming movies using HTTP download. This technology standardized by W3C is a technology to enable streaming playback on game machines such as Xbox and PS4, Chromecast, web browser, etc.

◆VP9
"VP9" is an open, royalty-free video compression codec developed by Google. By using this VP 9, HTML 5 is now able to reduce high-resolution movies by 35% in average bandwidth. This makes it easier to play high-resolution movies, making it easier to enjoy 4K movies and 60 fps movies. Also, the speed of playback of movies seems to be 15 to 80% faster than before.

◆Encrypted Media ExtensionsWhenCommon Encryption (CENC) - Unified Streaming
Flash and Silverlight use content protection technology AccessPlayReadyIt is deeply integrated with the file format, etc. It was specified finely, and a special plug-in was required to play the movie.

On the other hand, "Encrypted Media Extensions" means that content protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM) can be played back on the website without plug-in, "Common Encryption" is an encryption method and DRM It is a standard for making metadata holders common. By combining these, it seems that movies can be played easily using HTML 5 while making full use of various content protection technologies.

◆WebRTC
"WebRTC" is an API definition for real-time communication. This technology enables us to make video calls like Google Hangouts from a web browser without a specific plugin.

◆Fullscreen
By using the new full screen API with HTML 5, you will be able to watch 4K movies played on YouTube in full screen.

Since movie playback in HTML5 is the default setting on YouTube, it is not the embedding of the Flash movie using the object tag or the Flash API,IframeWe recommend embedding movies with.