HTML multimedia
Multimedia on the Web refers to sound effects, music, video, and animation.
Modern web browsers already support many multimedia formats.
What is multimedia?
Multimedia comes in many different formats. It can be anything you hear or see, text, pictures, music, sound effects, recordings, movies, animations, etc.
On the Internet, you will often find multimedia elements embedded in web pages, and modern browsers already support a variety of multimedia formats.
In this tutorial, you will learn about different multimedia formats and how to use them in your web pages.
Browser Support
The first Internet browsers only supported text, and even support for text was limited to a single font and a single color. Then came browsers that supported colors, fonts, and text styles, and image support was added.
Different browsers handle support for sound effects, animation, and video in different ways. Some elements can be processed inline, while others require additional plugins.
You will learn more about plug-ins in the following chapters.
Multimedia Format
Format Multimedia elements (such as video and audio) are stored in media files.
The most common way to determine the media type is to look at the file extension. When a browser gets a file extension of .htm or .html, it assumes that the file is an HTML page. The .xml extension indicates an XML file, while the .css extension indicates a stylesheet. The image format is identified by .gif or .jpg.
Multimedia elements elements also have file formats with different extensions, such as .swf, .wmv, .mp3 and .mp4.
Video format
 | ##MP4 is a new video format launched by the Internet. YouTube recommends MP4. Flash Players support MP4 HTML5 supports MP4. |
| Format | File | Description |
|---|---|---|
| AVI | .avi | AVI (Audio Video Interleave) format was developed by Microsoft. All computers running Windows support the AVI format. It is a very common format on the Internet, but non-Windows computers are not always able to play it. |
| WMV | .wmv | The Windows Media format was developed by Microsoft. Windows Media is common on the Internet, but Windows Media movies cannot be played without installing additional (free) components. Some later Windows Media movies will not play on all non-Windows computers because there is no suitable player. |
| MPEG |
| The MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) format is the most popular format on the Internet. It is cross-platform and supported by all the most popular browsers. |
| QuickTime | .mov | The QuickTime format was developed by Apple. QuickTime is a common format on the Internet, but QuickTime movies cannot be played on Windows computers without additional (free) components installed. |
| RealVideo |
| The RealVideo format was developed by Real Media for the Internet. This format allows video streaming under low bandwidth conditions (online video, IP TV). Because low bandwidth is prioritized, quality often decreases. |
| Flash |
| Flash (Shockwave) format was developed by Macromedia. The Shockwave format requires additional components to play. But the component comes pre-installed on browsers like Firefox or IE. |
| Mpeg-4 | .mp4 | Mpeg-4 (with H.264 video compression) is a new format for the Internet. In fact, YouTube recommends MP4. YouTube accepts multiple formats and converts them all to .flv or .mp4 for distribution. More and more video publishers are turning to MP4 as the Internet sharing format for Flash players and HTML5. |
 | The latest HTML5 standard only supports MP4, WebM, and Ogg video formats . |
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Sound format
MP3 is an audio compression technology, its full name is Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer III (Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer III), referred to as MP3. It is designed to drastically reduce the amount of audio data. If your site is of music type, you can choose mp3 format.
| Format | File | Description |
|---|---|---|
| MIDI |
| ##MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) Yes A format for electronic music devices such as synthesizers and sound cards. MIDI files do not contain sound, but contain digital music instructions that can be played by electronic products, such as sound cards. Because the MIDI format only contains instructions, MIDI files are extremely small. The example above is only 23k in size but plays for almost 5 minutes. MIDI is supported by a wide range of software on a wide range of platforms. Most popular web browsers support MIDI. |
| The RealAudio format was developed by Real Media for the Internet. The format also supports video. This format allows audio streaming (online music, network music) under low bandwidth conditions. Because low bandwidth is prioritized, quality often decreases. ||
| .wav | Wave (waveform) format was developed by IBM and Microsoft. It is supported by all computers running Windows and all web browsers (except Google Chrome). | |
| .wma | WMA format (Windows Media Audio), better quality than MP3, compatible with most players except iPod. WMA files can be transmitted as a continuous stream of data, making them useful for Internet radio or online music. | |
| MP3 files are actually the sound portion of MPEG files. The MPEG format was originally developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group. MP3 is one of the most popular sound formats for music. We look forward to future software systems supporting it.
 | The latest standard of HTML5 supports MP3, WAV, and Ogg audio formats.
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