HTML 5 <video> tag vs Flash video. What are the pros and cons?

Question

IMPORTANT UPDATE

This question was made over 9 years ago. It made sense then, it doesn\'t make it now. Flash is hard on its way out; sup

Answer 1

Pros:

1. You can easily use the tag and let it degrade to flash or other filetypes/codecs for backwards compatibility without using javascript.
   • Doesn't need a proprietary plug-in
   • Is platform-independent while flash is not (see nr. 2)
   • Using it will encourage other browser vendors to implement it (read as IE)
   • The tag has semantic meaning.
   • Comes built into the browser.
   • No vendor lockin

Cons:

1. It's a part of an unfinished standard.
   • A very small percentage of installed browsers support it <-- not an issue (See pro nr. 1)
   • Browser vendors have yet to agree on a standard codec <-- not an issue either, see link in nr. 1)