Understanding the Flash, Silverlight, and HTML5 Video Players on Screencast.com

Screencast.com strives to provide the best viewing experience possible. The diversity of browsers, mobile devices and video players (sometimes called controllers) can add confusion for content creators and viewers.

This article explains how Screencast.com chooses the correct player for your video and shows what features are supported by each player. This will help you be more confident that viewers will have a great experience watching your video.

If you are a Camtasia Studio, Camtasia for Mac, or Camtasia Relay user, your videos can include a table of contents, closed captions, search capability, hotspot functionality (Camtasia Studio and Camtasia for Mac), and quizzing (Camtasia Studio 8) on Screencast.com. This enhanced content can make your video more accessible and navigable for the viewer, however not all functionality is possible in all players.

For starters, the key is producing your video in the correct format—MP4 or WMV— then understanding the fallback procedures if the browser or mobile device cannot play the video with the optimal Screencast.com player.

Part 1: Producing the Video in the Correct Format

Produce your video in MP4 (strongly recommended) or WMV. Why is MP4 usually a better choice?

The MP4 and WMV video formats each have a preferred player on Screencast.com and a fallback option.

MP4s will play in our TechSmith Smart Player. It defaults to Flash playback, but if Flash is not available, it attempts to play the video in HTML5.

WMVs will play in the Silverlight player. If unavailable, Screencast.com attempts to play the video in Windows Media Player.

The majority of browsers have Flash installed, increasing the likelihood that your video will play in the preferred browser. In addition, MP4 videos have a much higher chance of playing on mobile devices. If viewing on an iPad or iPhone, or in a browser that does not have Flash installed, Screencast.com plays the video in HTML5. Viewers watching your video on an iPhone will be prompted to download the free iOS Smart Player app so they can take advantage of the interactive content on their iPhone.

A WMV video played in Silverlight is quite nice, but Silverlight has a smaller adoption rate—especially for Mac viewers. The fallback to Windows Media Player (if they don’t have Silverlight) provides an inferior experience for the viewer. For example, table of contents, closed captions, or hotspots simply do not work.

Summary: If you have video content that includes a table of contents, closed captions, hotspots or search capability, and you want to host it on Screencast.com, produce an MP4 out of your Camtasia product.

Part 2: Supported Functionality of the TechSmith Smart Player (Flash default with HTML5 fallback) for MP4 Video

If Flash is not installed, and the browser does not support HTML5, the viewer is prompted with a message to install the Flash add-on or use a different browser.

If using Screencast.com embed code to display an MP4 video on your website or blog, you have the option to return Flash embed code with HTML5 fallback (default), or Flash-only embed code. The latter choice is an option to accommodate those authoring tools or author permissions that do not support the iFrame tag. The iFrame in the Flash embed code with HTML5 fallback is essential to support quizzing when Flash is not present, as well as to support playback in browsers and mobile devices that do not have Flash.

Browsers that currently support HTML 5 include Google Chrome, Safari, Safari Mobile (iPad and iPhone) and Internet Explorer 9 (beta).

Part 3: Supported Functionality Between the Silverlight and Windows Media Player (WMV-specific)

Key point: If a viewer watches your video in a browser that does not have Silverlight installed, they will only see your video. All enhanced content such as closed captions, table of contents, and search capability will not work.

If neither Silverlight nor the Windows Media Player add-on is detected, the viewer is prompted to install Silverlight (strongly recommended) or get the add-on.