Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I understand it correctly, JW Player will play a video file on a browser without HTML5 abilities in Flash, and on a HTML5 browser with the video tag. In this way, a maximum number of viewers can be reached.
But in what format do I have to encode my video files in order to have a *maximum* viewability? MP4 I presume, but there are numerous sound codes... any help?
so is there any reason at all to do an FLV anymore.. I been doing both h264 and flv movie file versions for my blogs... that just a waste of space on my part, just stick to h264 for now on?
Not really. FLV is being deprecated and Flash itself has supported H.264 for years now.
I'm confused!
I have JW Player running on my WordPress site just fine, and have been mucking around with various combinations of file formats (mp4, webm, and flv) for both the main file and the HTML5 file.
I've come to the conclusion, and please correct me if I am wrong, that the 'file' and 'html5_file' should both be the same: the mp4 file.
I much prefer the quality of an mp4 file, and cannot see much point in providing an flv, especially when I can view the mp4 in Firefox 12.
What am I missing here?
Do the 'file' and 'html5_file' have to be different?
My WP short code looks like this (ignoring actual paths):
[jwplayer config="Player" image="poster.jpg" file="test.mp4" html5_file="test.mp4" download_file="test.mp4"]
Is it safe to use the mp4 version of a video for everything?
I should have added, with mp4's watchable in FF with flash, I can't see any point in providing a webm version either.
What I am really asking is:
What file version should I set my 'file' to, and what I should set my 'html5_file' to?
@Adam - The html5_file option in WordPress is only there for people who have different files for html5 vs flash (for example if they are using a flv or flash or streaming something via rtmp).
If you are using an mp4 file, encoded in H.264, just use file, that's all, and point it to the mp4 file. The JW embedder itself will be able to do all of the fallbacks by itself if need be.
@Ethan, thanks.
In the past I have created .flv files, but .mp4 kills them for quality.
Yes, my .mp4 files are H.264 encoded, 720x480, and I'm using the VimeoHD preset in Adobe Media Encoder 5.5 as the basis of my settings.
Well, that simplifies things then, if I only need to create the single .mp4 file for most viewers.
It would be nice though if JW Player (both the WP plugin and standalone) could detect an iPhone/iPod Touch, and select a different (smaller) version of the file.
Well, you could do that.
You could make two mp4 files, one for Flash, and one for HTML5, then set the higher one as the file, and the lower one as the html5_file (in wp)
.MP4 file, H.264 encoding!