For some time, YouTube has offered its HTML5 beta, but not all videos were able to be served with it. In particular, support in HTML5 for Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) has allowed YouTube to provide a ubiquitous digital rights management solution.
The last holdout on EME, Mozilla, folded on the issue in May last year.
"Encrypted Media Extensions separate the work of content protection
from delivery, enabling content providers like YouTube to use a single
HTML5 video player across a wide range of platforms," said YouTube
Engineering manager Richard Leider in a blog post.
"Combined with common encryption, we can support multiple content
protection technologies on different platforms with a single set of
assets, making YouTube play faster and smoother."
The move to
HTML5 video element has also allowed YouTube to begin deprecating its
old object-based embed code, and move to iframes.
"We encourage all embedders to use the <iframe> API,
which can intelligently use whichever technology the client supports,"
Leider said.
The HTML5 player replaces YouTube's video player
based on Adobe's Flash plugin, which has once again fallen foul of a
cascade of zero-day attacks.
YouTube is also touting the use of its VP9 codec, which YouTube said
it has served up "hundreds of billions" of times already, and adaptive
bitrate streaming as mechanisms to reduce the bandwidth needed to stream
high-quality video with less buffering.
"These advancements
have benefited not just YouTube's community, but the entire industry.
Other content providers like Netflix and Vimeo, as well as companies
like Microsoft and Apple, have embraced HTML5 and been key contributors
to its success," said Leider.
"By providing an open standard platform, HTML5 has also enabled new classes of devices like Chromebooks and Chromecast."
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