Exciting news here at Stupeflix! We released a new video player that supports both Flash and HTML5, and adds interactivity with buttons you can click after a video plays.
What it means for all of us Apple fanboys and fangirls, is that we can now watch our Stupeflix videos on our iPhones and iPads while browsing stupeflix.com The new Stupeflix player detects automatically how your browser plays video, and uses either an HTML5 or Flash player, whatever works best for you.
After playing a video, the player shows buttons so we can take further actions. Our business users can customize these, as well as the look and feel of the player. To see it in action, check out the video on the home page of the Studio.
The HTML5 vs. Flash conendrum is the front end of a raging battle between Internet giants to define the future standard(s) of online video. At Stupeflix we live and breathe online video, here’s a little background and our 2 cents.
Apple strongly supports HTML5 (which lets web browsers play H.264 encoded videos, used by Apple QuickTime, and a standard owned by industry consortium MPEG-LA), and ditches Flash for its toll on computing performance and lack of openness. The Mozilla Foundation (editor of the Firefox web browser) wants an open standard, supports the Theora codec, and recently announced support for WebM in FireFox, a forthcoming standard based on the VP8 codec, recently acquired by Google. Google boasts the broadest position, integrating Flash video player directly into the Chrome browser while being a supporter of HTML5 and offering VP8 as an open standard.
YouTube weighed in on the debate a couple days ago with a balanced view: while actively supporting HTML5 and contributing to the WebM/VP8 open standard, Flash is still best in class when it comes to streaming video, and offering a rich user experience (going back and forth in a video, going full screen…).
At Stupeflix we’ve always been big fans of HTML5 (and occasional Apple fanboys). All the videos you create on Stupeflix are encoded with H.264 and delivered as MP4 files, which play on both Flash and Quicktime. However, when it comes to delivering video to the user as fast as possible, streaming H.264 files comes short, and Flash shows its strength. That’s why the instant preview in the Studio is powered by Flash video. Now, that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to it in H.264. We solved bigger problems before. And we want to make videos on our iPads with the Studio! So stay tuned.
