an open web media project
Playing WebM Video

WebM video files play directly in your web browser using a new technology called HTML5. No plug-ins are required, but you must install a web browser that supports WebM files. See the instructions below in "How to Play WebM Videos."

What's Great About WebM

  • Very high quality video
  • Great video playback performance, even on older computers
  • 100% free and open to everyone
  • Supported on popular video sites like YouTube

How to Play WebM Video

Playing on YouTube

  1. Download and install a supported browser (listed below).
  2. Start the newly installed browser.
  3. Go to www.youtube.com/html5 and enroll in the YouTube HTML5 experiment.
  4. Search for a video by keyword. For example, trailers.
  5. In the browser's address bar, add &webm=1 to the end of the URL. For example, http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=trailers&aq=f&webm=1.
  6. Press Enter.
  7. In the list of videos that appears, click any of the links.
  8. The video will play in your browser and display HTML5 webm in the toolbar of the video player.

Supported Web Browsers

Other Media Players

Getting Help

Ask and answer questions on the webm-discuss list.

Learn More
  • Visit Tools if you want to create WebM content
  • Visit Code if you want to work on the WebM Project