jPlayer

HTML5 Audio & Video for jQuery

a project by happyworm

HTML5 <audio> and Audio() Support Tester

This page tests your browser for HTML5 <audio> tag support and for Audio() object support.

Tracks courtesy of Miaow MiaowMusic.com
The audio files used for this tester are hosted at TheWormLab.com

Developer's Notes: 18th February 2010

  • Safari 4: No change from 13th July 2009 review.
  • Firefox 3.6: No change from 13th July 2009 review.
  • Chrome 4: Has enabled File seeking, which appears to have degraded the performance.
    • Seeking to a new “start download point” in the file is enabled. (This seems to cause more problems than it solves and is especially noticable with larger file sizes, where changing the play position ahead of the downloaded point causes the sound to stop/start as the download is restarted from the new position.)
    • Audio playback appears to be pipelined, causing a laggy response to pause().
    • Emulating a stop function by setting MediaElement.currentTime property to zero followed by a pause() leaves unplayed sound in the audio pipeline. The following play() will cause a short blip of sound from the original position, before playback begins (where it should have) from the beginning of the audio.
  • Opera 10: No change from 13th July 2009 review.
  • Internet Explorer 8: No change from 13th July 2009 review.

Developer's Notes: 13th July 2009

  • Safari 4: Good Support for both <audio> and Audio()
    • Worked with: MP3, Wave, AIF and Basic files.
    • AIF files in Safari 4 require the entire download to complete before play will begin.
  • Firefox 3.5: Good Support for both <audio> and Audio()
    • Worked with: Ogg Vorbis and Wave files.
    • Seeking to a new “start download point” in the file is enabled. (This seems to cause more problems than it solves and is especially noticable with larger file sizes, where changing the play position ahead of the downloaded point causes the sound to stop/start as the download is restarted from the new position.)
    • Observation: The MediaElement object in Firefox 3.5 has some methods unimplemented.
  • Chrome 3 beta: Good Support for both <audio> and Audio()
    • Worked with: MP3 and Ogg Vorbis files.
    • Observation: The MediaElement object in Chrome 3 beta has some methods unimplemented.
  • Opera 10: Limited support using Audio()
    • Worked with: Wave files.
    • Wave files in Opera 10 require the entire download to complete before play will begin.
    • Observation: The Audio() object in Opera 10 does not have many methods or properties and it does not inherit the HTMLElement
    • The methods canPlayType(mime) and pause() are not available.
    • There are no player controls available in the Audio() object.
    • Uniquely, the Audio() object in Opera 10 has a stop() method.
    • Uniquely, the Audio() object in Opera 10 must have the src parameter, eg., myAudio = new Audio("elvis.wav");
    • Minor Bug: Selecting the same test file (WAV), while the same file is already playing causes the sound to stop. The old Audio() should stop() and then the new Audio() object should start playing, but for some reason you need to click it again for it to work.
  • Internet Explorer 8: No Support for audio
    • Erm...