Comparing IDL output movie formats

On this page I have two embedded movies that have been created directly from IDL. One is created in webm the format, the other in mp4 format. Try playing them to see which is compatible with your web browser. I give the results below for the browsers on my Mac and iPhone (from Oct 2021). The webm format now seems to work on Mac Safari, but not iOS Safari.

	mp4	webm
Firefox	No	Yes
Safari	Yes	Yes
Chrome	No	Yes
Safari (iOS)	Yes	No

I believe webm can work with Windows Explorer by downloading an extension (not tested).

Note that mp4 refers to the mp4 created with IDL. If you create a mp4 movie with the h.264 codec (e.g., with Quicktime Pro) then it should work with all browsers.

webm format

mp4 format

Page maintained by Dr Peter R Young.