Video format for web

[Mac Composer]

I need to put a video I created in iMovie on my website. I'd like to ensure compatibility as much as possible with Macs, Windows PC's, iPhones, Androids.

What format video would be my best choice? Quicktime, MPEG4, Flash...?

Thanks

 

[Cabbit]

H.264 video(.mp4) will play in both Safari(Desktop and Mobile) and IE9 so that should cover most people that are tech savvy, otherwise you would need to use Flash.

But if you want a easy life upload it to Youtube then embed it on your site.

 

[Mac Composer]

I really would like to stay away from Youtube for this. It's a video business proposal, so I'd like it to look as "professional" as possible. Thanks for your suggestion.

 

[Cabbit]

You'll need to encode it in h.264, webm, and flash to get 99.99% of users. Or just h.264 and webm if you know your users are not running ie6/7/8

 

[aykhwang]

You can use the HTML 5 video tag to fallback to whatever formats the user's browser supports (even to flash if there are none), in what order you want.

<video controls width="500">  
    <!-- if Firefox -->  
    <source src="video.ogg" type="video/ogg" />  
    <!-- if Safari/Chrome-->  
    <source src="video.mp4" type="video/mp4" />  

    <embed src="youtube" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="1024" height="798" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>  
</video>

h.264 (mp4) is almost universal. ogg is getting there.

http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/html-css-techniques/quick-tip-html-5-video-with-a-fallback-to-flash/

 

[KeithPratt]

Encode an H.264 in an MP4 wrapper. The vast majority will be able to play that via HTML5 <video> or Flash. Those who can't aren't going to be able to play Ogg or WebM.

HTML5 <video> will work in IE9, Safari and on iPhones, and a Flash fallback will cover everyone else.

Or there's Vimeo.

 

[Consultant]

Upload to Vimeo or YouTube.

Both provides automatically switching video embeds.

 

[manueld]

I really would like to stay away from Youtube for this. It's a video business proposal, so I'd like it to look as "professional" as possible. Thanks for your suggestion.

Alot of professional businesses use Youtube, it also delivers another way for people to find your video. Why wouldn't you take advantage of that? (Plus is can help with your SEO as well)