HTML5, Flash and the Battle for Faster Cat VideosBy YouTube's Greg Schechter, Phil Harnish and Matt Ward

Greg SchechterThe Web Warrior

schechter@google.com

mattward@google.com

Matt WardSeek Bar Engineer

philharnish@google.com

Phil HarnishSr. Play Button

Eng

HTML + JS + CSS + Awesomeness

Offline File Access Multimedia Performance Presentation Graphics Storage

HTML5

Offline File Access Multimedia Performance Presentation Graphics Storage

HTML5

Translation

HTML5 ~=

By geishaboy500http://www.flickr.com/photos/geishaboy500/3183872667/

99% connected desktop penetration?http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/

Why HTML5?

Features Accessibility "Device-ability"Security Embeds API

HTML5 vs Flash

Round 1: Features

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zipckr/4624150058/

Why Flash?Features missing in HTML5

● Content protection

Why Flash?Features missing in HTML5

● Content protection○ RTMPE protocol / Flash Access

Why Flash?Features missing in HTML5

● Content protection○ RTMPE protocol / Flash Access

● Camera & Microphone Access

Why Flash?Features missing in HTML5

● Content protection○ RTMPE protocol / Flash Access

● Camera & Microphone Access● Adaptive & Live Streaming

Why Flash?Features missing in HTML5

● Content protection○ RTMPE protocol / Flash Access

● Camera & Microphone Access● Adaptive & Live Streaming● Fullscreen video

Why Flash?Features missing in HTML5

● Content protection○ RTMPE protocol / Flash Access

● Camera & Microphone Access● Adaptive & Live Streaming● Fullscreen video

○ Hardware accelerated HD cat videos!○ **API available in webkit and gecko

Why Flash?Mozilla Fullscreen API

var elem = document.getElementById("my-element");document.onmozfullscreenchange = function() {// The fullscreen element:// document.mozFullScreenElement;console.log ("We went fullscreen!");};elem.mozRequestFullScreen();

Why Flash?Features missing in HTML5

● Content protection○ RTMPE protocol / Flash Access

● Camera & Microphone Access● Adaptive & Live Streaming● Fullscreen video

○ HD, hardware accelerated cat videos!○ **API available in webkit and gecko

Why Flash?Features missing in HTML5

● Content protection○ RTMPE protocol / Flash Access

● Camera & Microphone Access● Adaptive & Live Streaming ● Fullscreen video

○ HD, hardware accelerated cat videos!○ **API available in webkit and gecko

● Consistent format support

Why Flash?Features missing in HTML5

● Content protection○ RTMPE protocol / Flash Access

● Camera & Microphone Access● Adaptive & Live Streaming● Fullscreen video

○ HD, hardware accelerated cat videos!○ **API available in webkit and gecko

● Consistent format support○ HTML5 needs to support both H.264 and WebM

Why Flash?Features missing in HTML5

● Content protection○ RTMPE protocol / Flash Access

● Camera & Microphone Access● Adaptive & Live Streaming● Fullscreen video

○ HD, hardware accelerated cat videos!○ **API available in webkit and gecko

● Consistent format support○ HTML5 needs to support both H.264 and WebM

● Cross platform consistency****

Why HTML5?<video> Expectations

● Open source technology

○ Browser / Player / Codec

Why HTML5?<video> Expectations

● Open source technology

○ Browser / Player / Codec● Lower latency

○ No plug-in instantiation

Why HTML5?<video> Expectations

● Open source technology

○ Browser / Player / Codec● Lower latency

○ No plug-in instantiation● Better performance and fidelity

Why HTML5?<video> Expectations

● Open source technology

○ Browser / Player / Codec● Lower latency

○ No plug-in instantiation● Better performance and fidelity● Accessibility

Why HTML5?<video> Expectations

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/in_ur_reality.png

Why HTML5?<video> Expectations

● Open source technology

○ Browser / Player / Codec● Lower latency

○ No plug-in instantiation● Better performance and fidelity● Accessibility

○ User agents can have special video handling

Please put on your3D Glasses

By jmettrauxhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/jmettraux/4959258811/

Why HTML5?3D

● Flash

○ Build for graphics

○ Tools for easy video manipulation

■ HTML5 would require WebGL or Canvas

● HTML5○ Easy integration with browser and

devices○ Open Standard○ Allows for innovations by the browser

vendors as well as YouTube

Round 2: Device-ability

By dakinyhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/dakiny/4430765149/

Why HTML5?HTML5 Capable Browsers (~60%)

Why HTML5?Flash Support vs. HTML5 Support

Why HTML5?YouTube Data API Usage for Flash vs. HTML5 Devices

Why HTML5?

When HTML5?

Primary Goal:Recover playbacks that would

be lost without flash

Our Solution

<iframe type="text/html" width="640" height="385" frameborder="0" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID" allowfullscreen></iframe>

When HTML5?<iframe> Embed

● Give the user HTML5 or Flash based on device and user preferences.

● Allows for better mobile support.

● Offers an "it just works" experience.

Why an iframe?Other embedding methods

● <script>

○ We need our content to be sandboxed

○ More than just a video tag

● <object>

○ Can load content with the data attribute

○ But no way to interact with it

When HTML5?When does the user get HTML5?

When HTML5?Detecting HTML5

var videoElement = document.createElement('video');if (videoElement && videoElement.canPlayType && (videoElement.canPlayType('video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42001E, mp4a.40.2"') || videoElement.canPlayType('video/webm; codecs="vp8.0, vorbis"'))) { // Sweet, we can use HTML5!}

When HTML5?When does the user get HTML5?

Round 3: Performance

By Two Hawk's Eyehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/mycoolpics/92033686/

Player Start Time

TODO(schechter): Add csi screen captures

500ms

(Up from 200ms in Jan 2011)

Flash

HTML5

iframe Embed Time Till Thumbnail Visible

Flash - 5.1s

HTML5 - 1.4s

*Collected data shows faster load times than this control environment, but the comparison is actuate.

Get Video Time

Get Video Time

● HTML5:

○ Opera is Awesome

■ 200ms ahead of the pack

● Flash: IE9 and Opera are the leaders

○ 300ms faster● HTML5 is almost always faster than Flash

○ 300ms - 400ms faster○ IE9 is an exception

■ IE9 Flash is slightly faster than IE9 HTML5

Video Start Time

HTML5

Flash 2.5s

Video Start Time

HTML5

Flash 2.5s

● Firefox closest to catching Flash

○ HTML5 ~1.0s slower than Flash

So why is Flash so fast?

Make Assumptions

Making Assumptions

● Most users have a recent version of flash

● Thus we can optimistically embed the most common case and do version checking and updating after a script loads

● 250ms improvement to flash start time

Preload Video Connection

Preload Video Connection

● Resolves DNS while page is rendering● Maintains an open connection● 200ms improvement

<head> <script> var img = new Image(); img.src = videoConnectionUrl; </script></head>

What about embeds?

#1 cache

1. youtube.com/v/di5I49yg7bY 302 redirect2. s.ytimg.com/swf/l.swf?args&swf=swf2-hash_url.swf3. s.ytimg.com/swf/swf2-hash_url.swf ~150kb

1. youtube.com/v/di5I49yg7bY 3022. s.ytimg.com/swf/l.swf?args&swf=swf2-hash_url.swf3. s.ytimg.com/swf/swf2-hash_url.swf

1. youtube.com/v/di5I49yg7bY application/x-shockwave-flash2. s.ytimg.com/swf/swf2-hash_url.swf

Better

1. youtube.com/v/di5I49yg7bY 3022. s.ytimg.com/swf/l.swf?args&swf=swf2-hash_url.swf3. s.ytimg.com/swf/swf2-hash_url.swf

1. youtube.com/v/di5I49yg7bY application/x-shockwave-flash2. s.ytimg.com/swf/swf2-hash_url.swf

1. youtube.com/embed/di5I49yg7bY text/html2. s.ytimg.com/swf/swf2-hash_url.swf

Best

#2 lazy load

Most embeds are never played.

● Delay expensive queries.● Use cache for most videos.● Delay loading... flash?

Demo:http://gregthebusker.com/iframedemo.html

Player API

http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/getting_started.html#player_apis

The JavaScript APICommunication

The JavaScript APICommunication

● Poll the URL fragment? http://youtube.com/embed/video_id#fragment

The JavaScript APICommunication

● Poll the URL fragment?http://youtube.com/embed/video_id#fragment

● Messages are one dimensional.

● Polling eats up CPU and is not instant.

● Both directions of communication use the same fragment.

The JavaScript APICommunication

● Better idea: PostMessage API.someWindow.postMessage(message, targetOrigin);

The JavaScript APICommunication

● Better idea: PostMessage API.someWindow.postMessage(message, targetOrigin);

● Uses JSON for native encoding and decoding of data.● No polling.● Native event listeners.● Communications are sandboxed per-window.● Calls are asynchronous.

Conclusion

● Flash is still preferred in most places○ More critical features○ Deeper reach

● HTML5 is awesome○ Improves every day○ Greater mobile reach○ People want it

Questions?

schechter@google.commattward@google.comphilharnish@google.com

can haz question?By cloudzilla http://www.flickr.com/photos/cloudzilla/378829651/