: How do I specify the HEVC codec in the HTML5 video source type attribute? (Originally posted on Stack Overflow) I'd like to load and play a smaller HEVC-encoded video on web browsers with support

@Steve110

I think the issue that you've likely having here is that you have ordered the non .hecv video second

<source src="clip-hevc.mp4" type="video/mp4; codecs=hevc">
<source src="clip.mp4" type="video/mp4; codecs=avc1">


This is probably telling the browser load clip-hevc.mp4, then telling the browser to load clip.mp4 instead.

If you order them the opposite way this will likely tell the browser to load clip.mp4 and then load clip.hevc.mp4 instead:

<source src="clip.mp4" type="video/mp4; codecs=avc1">
<source src="clip-hevc.mp4" type="video/mp4; codecs=hevc">


So I think that is the glitchy issue that you are encountering. If you reorder clip-hevc to be at the bottom it will probably load hevc if possible.

I can't however guarantee that this will not load hevc if it isn't browser compatible. You will probably want to test it on a device that does not support hecv and see if it loads clip.mp4 instead.

There are also ways to check which codecs are compatible with the browser. Here is one example:

var testEl = document.createElement( "video" ),
mpeg4, h264, ogg, webm;
if ( testEl.canPlayType ) {
// Check for MPEG-4 support
mpeg4 = "" !== testEl.canPlayType( 'video/mp4; codecs="mp4v.20.8"' );

// Check for h264 support
h264 = "" !== ( testEl.canPlayType( 'video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E"' )
|| testEl.canPlayType( 'video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"' ) );

// Check for Ogg support
ogg = "" !== testEl.canPlayType( 'video/ogg; codecs="theora"' );

// Check for Webm support
webm = "" !== testEl.canPlayType( 'video/webm; codecs="vp8, vorbis"' );
}

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