Video for Everybody

Video for Everybody

Video for Everybody is a free open source JavaScript library that allows webpages to embed videos in a format readable by all major browsers, including legacy browsers. It detects browser support and loads the appropriate video file and player for each browser.
Video for Everybody image
video accessibility browser html5

Video for Everybody: Free Open Source Video Embedding Library

A free open source JavaScript library allowing webpages to embed videos readable by all major browsers, including legacy browsers.

What is Video for Everybody?

Video for Everybody is an open source JavaScript library released in 2009 that aims to simplify embedding videos on websites in a browser-compatible way. It was created by web developer Steve Heffernan and released under an MIT license.

The key benefit of Video for Everybody is its ability to detect browser support for various video formats, and provide the appropriate video file & player for each browser. This ensures the video will play correctly on all major desktop and mobile browsers, including older ones with limited format support like Internet Explorer 6-8.

Here's how it works: the script allows you to specify multiple video sources in various formats like MP4, WebM, and Ogg. Video for Everybody will then check browser support and deliver the optimal video file that works for that browser. If needed, it can also load additional JavaScript players like MediaElement.js.

This removes headaches for developers who previously had to encode videos in multiple formats and write complex scripts to determine format support. The library handles all that automatically behind the scenes. All you need is a few lines of code to embed the cross-compatible video.

Video for Everybody helped fill an important need during the transition era when HTML5 video was emerging while Flash Player was declining. It remains useful today for ensuring maximum browser and device support. The script is free, lightweight, easy to implement, and continues to empower developers to focus on content rather than complicated video configurations.

Video for Everybody Features

Features

  1. Automatically detects browser support for different video formats
  2. Loads appropriate video file & player for each browser
  3. Supports MP4/H.264 video for IE9+, Safari, Chrome etc.
  4. Loads Flash video for older browsers like IE6-8
  5. Falls back to embeding QuickTime for Safari on Windows
  6. Lightweight JavaScript library

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Works across all major desktop & mobile browsers

Ensures maximum browser compatibility

Simplifies cross-browser video embedding

Free & open source

Cons

Relies on multiple video formats for full coverage

Extra complexity vs single video format

Requires coding/JavaScript to implement

Not ideal for very old/niche browsers


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