A detailed introduction to the comparison between HTML5 and Flash

HTML5, this most popular word on the Internet currently affects the hearts of countless manufacturers and users. Although the HTML5 specification has not yet been fully determined, major browser manufacturers and video service providers have begun to seize HTML5 to seize market opportunities and build momentum for themselves. Both Google, Mozilla and Apple seem to be preparing to use HTML5 as the main means of next-generation online video playback, and their common goal seems to be to kill the video player that has been monopolized by Flash in the past (with Microsoft With the emergence of silverlit (the advantages of Flash have gradually faded), what are the shortcomings of HTML5 VS Flash? Let's take a look together.

Youtube, the largest video site in the world, has been actively promoting the Flash-free reform of the website recently. They even launched an HTML5 player for trial. However, earlier this week, Youtube expressed its support for HTML5 playback. some concerns about the device.

Currently all browser manufacturers plan to transform to the HTML5 standard later this year, including Microsoft's IE9. Google's Android mobile platform and Microsoft's Windows Phone7 platform Flash player will continue to be supported. At the same time, although Apple's Safari5 is compatible with Flash, the version of the browser on iPhone/iPod/iPad will not support Flash player.

However, Youtube has expressed some concerns at this time about the new HTML5 player that will replace the traditional Flash player. First of all, although they all belong to the HTML5 standard, the encoding technology used by various browsers when playing videos using the HTML5 standard may not be the same. For websites like Youtube with a huge number of videos, the ideal situation is to control the content of these videos as much as possible. The type of encoder used, otherwise it will be difficult to do unified processing.

Judging from the current situation, Google, Opera and Mozilla support the WebM VP8 video encoder engine led by Google. VP8 is an open source encoder engine. Microsoft and Apple are supporters of commercial H.264 encoders, but Microsoft's IE9 allows users to freely choose to install the WebM engine.

Before various browser manufacturers have yet to agree on the format of the video encoder, Youtube stated that it will continue to use the existing H.264 format, which they have been using since 2007. .

Not only the encoder, there are also some problems in the performance of the HTML5 player when playing video streams and the utilization of system resources. When playing real-time videos, whether it can fully control the system buffering and video graphics Quality is very important to player performance. In addition, DRM piracy protection technology is also one of the headaches for Youtube. It is expected that they are likely to provide services similar to online movie rentals. This service may only allow some authorized users to watch, and Users do not have the right to copy these videos and distribute them online.

Anyone who has used an HTML5 player knows that using this player requires relatively large changes to the web page. In addition, when the HTML5 player is playing a video, if the user pulls the play bar to jump to the next part of the video, the player will always have a delay of 1-2 seconds, while the Flash player generally does not have such problems.

The following picture is a comparison of two pictures when playing videos in Chrome6.0.447.0 browser + Wiondows7 64-bit ultimate operating system running HTML5 video player and Flash10.1.53.64 player respectively. From the perspective of video loading waiting time and video quality, Flash has certain advantages.

Comparison between html5 and flash

Thirdly, the Youtube website also has the function of directly embedding external videos, while HTML5’s performance in this regard is average. Not as good as Flash.

Finally, the HTML5 player does not support the camera/microphone, but the Flash player of the Youtube website can support the function of using the player to directly record the video with the camera/microphone. Without Flash, this is very difficult. Did it.

It can be seen that although many media and manufacturers have almost promoted HTML5 to the sky, from the perspective of practical application, HTML5 player actually still has many areas that need further improvement, and if it wants to replace Flash player, it is currently status, there is still a long way to go.

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