HTMLMultimedia
Multimedia on the Web refers to sound effects, music, video, and animations.
Modern web browsers support many multimedia formats.
What is Multimedia?
Multimedia comes from various formats. It can be any content you hear or see, text, images, music, sound effects, recordings, movies, animations, etc.
On the internet, you will often find multimedia elements embedded in web pages. Modern browsers support various 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 browser only supported text, and even the support for text was limited to a single font and color. Later, browsers that supported colors, fonts, and text styles were born, and image support was also added.
Different browsers handle multimedia elements in different ways. Some elements can be handled internally, while others require additional plugins.
You will learn more about plugins in the following chapters.
Multimedia Format
Multimedia elements (such as video and audio) are stored in media files.
The most common way to determine the type of media is to look at the file extension. When the 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, and the .css extension indicates a style sheet. The image format is identified by .gif or .jpg.
Multimedia elements also have file formats with different extensions, such as .swf, .wmv, .mp3, and .mp4.
Video Format
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MP4 is the new video format introduced on the internet. YouTube recommends using MP4. Flash Players support MP4. HTML5 supports MP4. |
| Format | File | Description |
|---|---|---|
| AVI | .avi | AVI (Audio Video Interleave) format was developed by Microsoft. All Windows computers support the AVI format. It is a very common format on the internet, but not all Windows computers can play it. |
| WMV | .wmv | Windows Media format was developed by Microsoft. Windows Media is very common on the internet, but if you do not install additional (free) components, you cannot play Windows Media movies. Some later Windows Media movies cannot be played on all non-Windows computers because there is no suitable player. |
| MPEG |
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MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) format is the most popular format on the internet. It is a cross-platform format and is supported by all popular browsers. |
| QuickTime | .mov | QuickTime format was developed by Apple. QuickTime is a very common format on the internet, but QuickTime movies cannot be played on Windows computers without installing additional (free) components. |
| RealVideo |
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RealVideo format was developed by Real Media for the internet. This format allows video streams at low bandwidth conditions (online videos, network TV). Due to being low bandwidth priority, quality often decreases. |
| Flash |
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Flash (Shockwave) format was developed by Macromedia. Shockwave format requires additional components to play. However, the component is pre-installed in Firefox or IE-like browsers. |
| Mpeg-4 | .mp4 | Mpeg-4 (with H.264 video compression) is a new format for the internet. In fact, YouTube recommends using MP4. YouTube receives various formats and then converts them to .flv or .mp4 for distribution. More and more video publishers are turning to MP4, which is an HTML5 and internet sharing format for Flash players and HTML5. |
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The latest HTML5 standard only supports MP4, WebM, and Ogg video formats. |
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Audio Format
MP3 is an audio compression technology. Its full name is Dynamic Imaging Experts Group Audio Layer III (Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer III), and it is abbreviated as MP3. It is designed to significantly reduce the amount of audio data. If your site is music-oriented, you can choose MP3 format.
| Format | File | Description |
|---|---|---|
| MIDI |
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MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a format for electronic music devices (such as synthesizers and sound cards). MIDI files do not contain sounds, but they contain digital music instructions that can be played by electronic devices (such as sound cards). Click here to play The Beatles。 Because MIDI format only contains instructions, MIDI files are extremely small. This example is only 23k in size, but it can play nearly 5 minutes. MIDI has been widely supported on platforms with a large number of software. Most popular web browsers support MIDI. |
| RealAudio |
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RealAudio format was developed by Real Media for the internet. This format also supports video. This format allows audio streams at low bandwidth conditions (online music, network music). Due to being low bandwidth priority, quality often decreases. |
| Wave | .wav | Wave (waveform) format was developed by IBM and Microsoft. All running Windows computers and all network browsers (except Google Chrome) support it. |
| WMA | .wma | WMA format (Windows Media Audio), quality better than MP3, compatible with most players, except iPod. WMA files can be transmitted as continuous data streams, making them practical for radio stations or online music. |
| MP3 |
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MP3 files are actually MPEG files' audio part. MPEG format was initially developed by the Motion Image Experts Group. MP3 is the most popular audio format for music. Expect future software systems to support it. |
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HTML5's latest standard supports MP3, WAV, and Ogg audio formats. |
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