
Going beyond images with basic video for the web - feross
https://web.dev/video-basics/
======
bhhaskin
For anyone who is asking why sites are pushing auto playing videos, this is
why. Google is actively pushing video to "increase engagement". All of those
"news" sites have a Google Ads rep that tells them increase engagement equals
more ad revenue, so they maximize it to the hilt. It becomes the overriding
force UX be damned.

~~~
Ajedi32
Aren't auto playing videos blocked by default in Chrome now?
[https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-p...](https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-
policy-changes)

~~~
degenerate
No. The Autoplay chrome flag was added but then removed/scrapped sometime in
early 2019. You can only stop autoplay videos by using extensions now. The
only extension that is actively maintained (and actually works) is called
"AutoplayStopper"
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/autoplaystopper/ej...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/autoplaystopper/ejddcgojdblidajhngkogefpkknnebdh?hl=en)

~~~
Ajedi32
There's no flag; it's on by default. Do you have a link to an article talking
about the autoplay policy being reverted?

~~~
degenerate
No, I am speaking by my own use of Chrome only. Go to YouTube or any large
news site, and the videos still autoplay, regardless of whatever chrome
settings/flags are now supposedly default.

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Jaruzel
Whether I agree with a video-heavy web or not (I don't), I have to commend
this for explaining the <video> tag in very clear steps.

~~~
cameronbrown
Video has it's place for-sure, but I can't stand seeing it on news websites.
So much data must be wasted on sending this junk down the pipe nobody looks
at.

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693471
The h264 and h265 files are named incorrectly in their example causing
confusion.

    
    
      <source src="myh264Video.mp4" type='video/mp4; codecs="hvc1"'>
      <source src="myh265Video.mp4" type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1"'>
    

myh264Video.mp4 should be avc1 codec...

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abrie
Video is highly engaging, and moving images are very useful. I wanted to
include videos in an electronic book, but it turned out that auto-playing
videos are too interesting and they ruin the flow. Instead, I ended up playing
the videos frame by frame according to scroll position. The effect is pretty
neat:
[https://goeiebook.ca/story/bussing/](https://goeiebook.ca/story/bussing/)

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echelon
We need a new type of browser that only understands minimal HTML and doesn't
allow script execution. Something entirely document-centric. There has to be a
way to put the genie back in the bottle.

~~~
tenebrisalietum
PDFs mostly fulfill this.

I'm aware they can have scripts and such, but people expect PDFs to be static
documents and not applications.

~~~
atombender
They really don't, since they don't reflow. Viewing a PDF paper on a phone,
for example, is a nightmare because you have to zoom in and out and pan around
to even be able to read the text.

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bigwheeler
"Research shows that websites with video lead to higher engagement and sales."

That "Research shows" link is pretty thin on actual research. Anybody have any
links to something more substantial than a questionable A/B test run by a
single company?

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ModsCtrlideas
A single website cannot compete with giants.

A friendly nerd cannot put the time into multimedia and SEO.

Commerce giants win. And those companies have fake social media users
astroturfing.

Maybe blogs should be more accepted.

~~~
echelon
I don't know why you've been flagged and downvoted. Though your argument could
use some more effort and articulation, this sentiment is certainly growing
amongst engineers and a certain subset of the internet population. You're not
alone in feeling this.

The old internet didn't have real money and power behind it (outside of
research and pure business technologists), but now that the Internet is where
the eyes of the world are, all of that influence has crept in and is seemingly
here to stay.

It's hard to fight back against entities that are thousands of times more
equipped than you.

