canPlayType method

Article
05/02/2017

Returns a string that specifies whether the client can play a given media resource type.

Syntax

 retVal = object.canPlayType(type, canPlay);

Parameters

type [in]

Type: string

The mime type of media that the client is being asked to play.

canPlay [out, retval]

Type: string

probably

The type of media that is most likely to be rendered.

maybe

The type of media that might be able to be rendered

[empty string]

The media type cannot be rendered, or the media engine isn't available.

Return value

This method does not return a value.

Standards information

HTML5 A vocabulary and associated APIs for HTML and XHTML, Section 4.8.9.2

Remarks

Positive return values are slightly vague because of the implementation variations in video and audio formats.

Examples

This code segment is from the demo featured in How to use HTML5 to play video files on your webpage and shows how to use canPlayType. Try the example online.

  if (myvideo.canPlayType) {
    // CanPlayType returns maybe, probably, or an empty string.
    var playMsg = myvideo.canPlayType('video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E"');
    if ("" != playMsg) {
      msg.innerHTML += "mp4/H.264 is " + playMsg + " supported <br/>";
    }
    playMsg = myvideo.canPlayType('video/ogg; codecs="theora"');
    if ("" != playMsg) {
      msg.innerHTML += "ogg is " + playMsg + " supported<br/>";
    }
    playMsg = myvideo.canPlayType('video/webm; codecs="vp8, vorbis"');
    if ("" != playMsg) {
      msg.innerHTML += "webm is " + playMsg + " supported<br/>";
    }
  }
  else {
    msg.innerHTML += "no video support";
  }
}