Learn the Easiest Way to Add an HTML5 Video Player to Your Site

The HTML5 video player you've been looking for may have just been released—in Switzerland.

A small company called Jilion has created a cloud-based HTML5 video player that's attractive, versatile, and easy to install. It's called the SublimeVideo Player. While the company created it last year, its only just been released as a commercial product.

Having a cloud-based player means that you insert code to your pages that call up the player each time. Because the player is coming from Jilion's servers, the Jilion team is able to update it and add improvements without customers needing to install anything new.

The player supports MP4/H.264, WebM, and Ogg video, so it can display your content on any HTML5-compatible browser, even Apple mobile devices. The player defaults to Flash for browsers that don't support HTML5 video. You'll need to supply and host the video files yourself; this isn't an encoding and hosting solution.

The SublimeVideo Player is a paid service, but the pricing is doable even for small sites. For $9.90 per month, you can use it to serve 3,000 video pageviews per month. "Video pageviews" is a term you'll need to get used to if you're working with Jilian. Every time a page with the SublimeVideo Player is loaded, that's a video pageview (even if the viewer doesn't play the video). But if you have one page with multiple videos, that still only counts as one pageview, since the code is only loaded once.

The company offers unlimited free test accounts for developers who want to try out the player.

Jilian offers an excellent quick start guide on the SublimeVideo site. Adding the necessary code will be simple for anyone with a little HTML knowledge.

The company is generous with the player features. All four pricing levels offer the same features; the only difference is how many views they can delivery. If you get a traffic spike and exceed your plan, don't worry: the company offers peak insurance, letting you exceed your pageviews if you get unexpected traffic bursts.

It's easy to install, low-priced, and delivers videos on any platform or device. If you've been looking for a simple way to get started with HTML5 video, the SublimeVideo Player might be the answer.

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net