What video format does HTML5 use and why is it compatible with Safari on the iPad

Question

What video format does HTML5 support that is compatible with the iPhone/iPad? I was thinking of putting together a website with some instructional videos and I'm now confused as I thought that only Quicktime was supported by Apple mobile devices.

Answer 1

It uses H.264 - though this isn't described as having to be used by the HTML5 spec. Most browsers (IE9, Chrome, Safari) use H.264, though currently Firefox only supports OGG when using the video tag.

If you aren't sure what to do, try this project: http://code.google.com/p/html5media/ it lets you use the video tag with an H.264 video, then backports it to older IEs using a flash fallback.