Every website developer wishes that all the content of his website which may often include videos, should be accessible to anyone who visits the site.

No doubt, flash videos have gained tremendous popularity, but there are still a lot of users accessing the Internet from different cell phones and low powered devices which have either no or minimum flash support. Hence, integrating HTML5 videos in your website could be a great idea if you wish to cater to all your visitors impartially.

As a website owner and developer you should know that there are some great tools available for free, that will let your videos run via HTML5 or flash in case the former is not supported by visitor’s browser:

1. JW Player for HTML5

This recent release of LongTail Video is day by day gaining more and more popularity and is owing to its portability and the kind of flexibility it offers. JW Player makes use of jQuery while at the same time playback of H.264, Theora and FLV video are supported by it. Right now, JW Player is entering just beta but it will soon evolve to be integrated in different platforms as well.

2. Kaltura HTML5 Video Solution

This open source video solution comes with a library along with an HTML5 player. What appeals the most is its customizable look and feel, since the JavaScript library is buit on jQuery and jQuery UI. Promising to work on all browsers, while offering Flash as a fallback support, Kaltura supports OGG, H.264, FLV and MOV videos.

3. Video for Everybody

This was one of the first HTML5 videos which were designed to run on different browsers, by Kroc Camen. Though now we have a lot of cross-browser players, yet Video for Everybody still manages to be one of the best. What makes this player unique is that it does not use JavaScript. Hence, it makes your videos accessible even to applications which might not support JavaScript.

Here’s how it functions- The first priority is given to HTML5 code, and if it is supported by a browser the video is played via HTML5, else Adobe Flash is put to work. There is also a deprecated version available which will give preference to QuickTime over Flash. If nothing works out well, it diligently shows a download link. This tool can also be easily integrated with WordPress blogs by using External Video for Everybody plugin by Kevin Wiliarty

4. Open Standard Media Player

The Open Standard Media Player (OSM) adds to name-list of top media players which support HTM5 and Flash as well as flash based sites like YouTube and Vimeo. It is written in jQuery and can be used to playback OGG or H.264 files.

Not only this, you can also use this all-in-one media player to pull videos from other video service streams.

5. Degradable HTML5 Audio and Video Player for WordPress

Though this player is quite similar to Video for Everybody, it can support only Theora via HTML, unlike Video for Everybody. Hence Firefox users will have to play H.264 videos via flash.

You can choose from any of these options to give the best video viewing experience to your visitors. These tools will definitely help you to build and upgrade your website with a futuristic approach to serve your users.

	Saurabh Dutta
	Saurabh Dutta is the founder and author of TechChai. He writes on useful technology tips, tricks, tutorials, articles and interesting technology updates on various websites and blogs online.
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