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Streaming video sites which offer HTML5 video viewing for HTML5 compatible browsers

HTML5 video players are video players which you can watch streaming videos on without the need to install any additional add-on or plug-ins like Adobe Flash Player or Java on your HTML5 compatible web browsers like Firefox 4-5+, Google Chrome 12, Internet Explorer 9, Opera 10.6, Apple Safari, etc.

Also, you might be able to play videos on smart cell phones and tablets like the iPhone, iPad, and iPad Touch which do not support flash, but support HTML5 in their phone’s web browser.

For Internet Explorer 6-8 you need to use Chrome Frame to playback HTML5 content. You can download Chrome Frame at code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe/ .

The advantage of HTML5 video player is they seem to be more reliable then Adobe Flash Player, and work on devices which don’t support Flash, but has a HTML5 browser like Apple iPhone or iPad. Plus, most of the latest versions of Linux. HTML5 also does not require a plug-in to download and install to display HTML5 apps on an HTML5 compatible browser.

You can also use HTML5 browsers like Google Chrome 12, FireFox 5 to play Angry Birds for free (no purchase required) and no added Plug-in like Java, or Adobe Flash at chrome.angrybirds.com . Angry Birds is a full featured game with sound, 2D video animation where you use a slingshot to launch Angry Birds at pigs to knock them out to advance in the level. Angry Birds became popular as a smart mobile phone game which latter got released to Game Consoles, and now for Web Browsers to play on the PC for free.

Also, when you right click the HTML5 video with the right button on the mouse, you don’t get a large confusing context menu like the Adobe Flash right click menu which blocks the video and is hard to understand. After turning on HTML5 video and using HTML5 video there are no settings to adjust like other browser plug-ins, so there is no learning curves when using HTML5 since it works be default if your browser supports HTML5.

You can now view streaming videos online without the Adobe Flash Player plug-in for web browser. This is useful if your school, work place, or friends computer does not have Adobe Flash player installed, or their version of Adobe Flash Player is broken.

If they are using Windows Vista, or 7, you can also use an Administrator account and Windows Update to update their version of Internet Explorer to Internet Explorer 9 which supports HTML5 video. If they are using Google Chrome, it should already support HTML5 since Google Chrome automatically updates to the latest version which is 12 which supports HTML 4.  FireFox requires you to download the latest version from Firefox.com to upgrade to the latest version number or FireFox while Opera usually installs the latest version when a new version is released, and you agree to let Opera update to the latest version.

You can install Chrome Frame ( code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe/ ) in Internet Explorer 6-8 to playback HTML5 video on YouTube and possibly other HTML5 enabled video sharing site, but Chrome Frame + Internet Explorer 6-8 won’t be as smooth as a true HTML5 browser since Internet Explorer 6-8 seems to suffer from web browser crashes, and slow downs more then Internet Explorer 9, Chrome 12, FireFox 5, and Opera.

If your friend does not have a HTML5 enabled browser and won’t let you install a HTML5 browser on his computer, you can use a the portable version of Firefox 5, Google Chrome, Opera, and run either FireFox 5, Chrome or Opera from a USB Flash drive, SD card, External hard drive or other external storage device.

The portable version for Firefox 5, Google Chrome and Opera Web Browser which also support HTML5 Apps and Videos on websites are also available from the links listed below.

Firefox 5

portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

Google Chrome (Seems to work best at playing back HTML5 videos in my experience)

portableapps.com/apps/internet/google_chrome_portable

Opera

portableapps.com/apps/internet/opera_portable

In my Experience HTML5 videos and Apps seems to work best in Google Chrome 12+ Web Browser compared to FireFox 5, Opera and Internet Explorer 9 because Google Chrome is a fast, sleek, very stable, and Google quickly fixes errors, bugs, vulnerabilities, and improve performance on Google Chrome web browser, so the users can have the best web browsing experience possible.

Alternatively, you can use a virtual machine like VMWare, VirtualBox, Qemu, Virtual PC 2007  to boot into the Ubuntu 11.04 liveCD ISO or pre-built Ubuntu vdi or VMDK image to run Firefox 5 on Ubuntu 11.04 to use to play HTML5 video and Apps.

Virtual PC 2007, VmWare Player, and Qemu are also free alternative virtual machine software for Windows.

You can also boot your computer from a Linux LiveCD like Ubuntu 11.04 or a LiveFlash drive with a HTML5 web browser with Firefox 4 or 5, Google Chrome, etc preinstalled on it to watch videos in HTML5 mode. I notice HTML5 video crashes, freeze less in full screen mode compared to Adobe Flash Player in Ubuntu Linux and other Linux operating systems which is one of the advantages of HTML5 instead of using the Adobe Flash Player plug-in. You also do not have to constantly update a plug-in to watch HTML5 videos on the web like the Adobe Flash Player plug-in which requires you to update it when a new version is released to watch videos and use flash apps in a safe and secure manner.

You can use Remote Desktop to access your home computer to access your web browser which has HTML5 support to watch HTML5 videos away from home.

By using these HTML5 video sharing sites to upload and share your videos, it means you’ll have more viewers from people who refuse to use or can’t install Adobe Flash Player Plug-in to watch videos on YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, and other HTML5 enabled video sharing sites you upload to. It also means you don’t have to worry about Adobe Flash Player plug-in slowing down your browser, or crashing it when you are watching videos. I notice the HTML5 video players and apps seem to crash less, and have fewer problems in my experience.

Video sites which support HTML5 video playback
You need to click a link to agree to turn on HTML5 video instead of using the default flash video on most of the sites I listed below.

If you want to view videos in Full Screen Mode, you need to hit the Full Screen button on the browser, and press the F11 key on the top row of your keyboard to make the video use your entire monitor space.

To exit full screen mode you need to click F11 again, and then click ESC key on your keyboard, or the Full Screen/Shrink button on the video player again.

youtube.com/html5
Click on the Join HTML5 trial at the bottom of the page to turn on YouTube HTML5 video player. YouTube videos from YouTube partners with ads will still use the YouTube Flash Video player because YouTube ads do not support HTML5 yet.

dailymotion.com/extras/html5
Click on the Green “Turn On HTML5 player Beta” to start using the HTML5 video player on Dailymotion to playback video in HTML5 mode.

I  get this message “Unable to play this video in HTML5 player due to incompatible format – Click here to view the video into Flash player.” a lot for all videos I tried in HTML5 mode when viewing videos with Google Chrome, Firefox 5, Opera 11.50 with Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit in Dailymotion with its HTML5 player. With Internet Explorer 9, when viewing in HTML5 mode. I get no message, and just a black player with no playing video on the player.

HTML5 seems to be have disabled HTML5 player on it sites.  It seems only YouTube, and Vimeo are currently supporting HTML5 video to work, or my computer does not have the right codecs to playback HTML5 video on Dailymotion.com. I remember a few months back when Internet Explorer 9 was released HTML5 video streaming work on Dailymotion.com, and now it does not for me.

vimeo.com/blog:268
Click on the Switch to HTML5 player on the far bottom right of the video under the video suggestions playlist in Google Chrome, Opera, and other HTML5 enabled browsers.

For some reason, the HTML5 video player option is not available in Vimeo videos in Firefox 5.01 which is the latest version for Firefox, and when I use Internet Explorer 9 and Opera 11.50 which both support HTML5 . Vimeo still uses the default flash video player instead of the new HTML5 video player after I click the switch to the HTML5 video player link.

theblog.blip.tv/post/1223359295/a-fierce-embrace-of-html5
HTML5 option seems to be missing for Blip.TV, and they are using the Flash Player, but I think in the future when they fixed all the bugs with their HTML5 player. They will let users have an option to use the HTML5 player.

Summary
YouTube and Vimeo seems to support HTML5 video best. However, if you are watching YouTube videos with ads in it like videos from YouTube Partners, you still need to have the Adobe Flash Player to play the video.

Dailymotion and Blip still seems to only work with the Adobe Flash Player plug-in. The Dailymotion HTML5 player seems to be broken on my PC, so I can’t playback any video in HTML5 mode when I switch to the HTML5 video player in Dailymotion.  While there is no HTML5 option for watching videos on Blip.tv, or it is very hard for newbie blip.tv viewers like myself.

Google Chrome also seems to be the best browser for watching HTML5 videos on the web because websites usually detected Chrome as an HTML5 browser and uses the HTML5 player when switch to HTML5 mode while Firefox 5, Opera 11.50, and Internet Explorer 9 is not detected as a HTML5 browser, or it still uses the Adobe Flash plug-in even when switch to HTML5 mode on Vimeo.com.

How to switch back to the Adobe Flash video player for YouTube and other HTML5 enabled video sharing websites if you rather use the Adobe Flash Video Player for watching video?

If you want to turn off the HTML5 player for any of these video sharing website listed below, you need to click the “Switch back to flash, leave HTML trial or Turn off HTML5 video player” from the links I listed above.

You can also empty your “Entire” browsing history like cookies, and cache” by using the erase history program wizard found on your HTML5 browser settings which will erase all your cookies, and history which will switch you back to the Adobe Flash Player Video player instead of the HTML5 video player.

7 comments… add one
  • computer repair melbourne August 1, 2011, 3:14 am

    It’s a quite interesting blog. The contents are awesome and the stuffs are beneficial for the computer and internet users. I enjoyed reading the blog. Thanks for sharing your concept here.

  • green pc August 10, 2011, 12:32 am

    Brilliant article! Thanks for sharing some informative details regarding HTML, I learned a lot. Please keep on posting.

  • Mary August 10, 2011, 3:08 pm

    I did used this application in watching a live streaming but it has conflicts or delays. I am not so sure if the Memory of the computer vary or the processor should be upgraded to higher version.

  • Johnson Yip August 10, 2011, 3:51 pm

    HTML5 video shouldn’t use up a lot of memory in my experience. It seems to use up as much memory as regular YouTube video in Adobe flash mode. HTML5 video also do not use a lot of CPU cycles. I think it is most likely a slow connection with your ISP, or the live streaming site. It also could be the streamers computers.

  • icecubemedia August 24, 2011, 3:34 am

    Hi,
    Great information on viewing HTML Video 5 in browsers.
    Thanks.

  • rick October 9, 2011, 7:48 am

    “…The advantage of HTML5 video player is ” simple.

    1./-It’s completely “free” , because it’s just the same HTML markup language with a lot more newer syntax features to help you point to any available audio and video content. The content however also should be opensource/free, aka ogg-theora are great audio/video sstandards and there are an infinite amount of applications for creating audio/video streaming using ogg/theora/x264/mkv/….

    2./ It works in ALL of the major Web Browsers, and therefore, it’ll work in ALL other OS’s, like Linux, *BSD’s, …,as long as that OS can run a web browser, doh 🙂

    3./ It does exactly what Fla$h does, but at no co$t, and html5 does it better., and will do it even better in time.

    Adobe Fla$h, is just a buggy proprietary piece of caca, that does not even “natively” work in FreeBSD/Unix. with Fla$h you also have to install it,…, agree to Adobe’s license blah blah blah, ….
    an adobe Fla$h server-side is definitely NOT free, and NOT cheap.
    HTML5 server-sides are all free to setup/use/enjoy/…
    🙂

    The sad news is ?
    …Still, Google’s youtube has NOT yet switched all youtube content over to html5.
    Why? I don’t know. Hey Larry, get off your Page already will ya’ ? 😉
    But if/when Google ever “truly” does incorporate html5 standards, then people will only need their personal web browser of choice, on thier OS of choice, to enjoy any new youtube’s,…, and all that, without any fuss.
    🙂

  • Johnson Yip October 9, 2011, 2:18 pm

    I agree, that HTML5 is great for the community of Linux, and all computer users. I always has problems with Adobe flash running in Linux and even Windows like it crashing Firefox web browser, Chrome in full screen mode, or worse crashing the whole desktop. It also uses a lot of RAM and CPU cycles in my experience on older computers.

    I just hope no one starts selling over priced HTML5 players to uninformed webmaster which don’t know it is simple to embed HTML5 video on their website with the right tags.

    The Software programs for making flash animation for websites, and application can cost hundreds of dollars for people to buy.

    I think Google has not found a way, or a stable way to embed in-video, and pre-roll video ads which shows up before a YouTube video according to YouTube’s HTML5 join page.

    Thanks for the great comment, Rick.

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