I did a small update to the Universal Video plugin this afternoon. Not a lot was changed in this release, but a requested feature has been included.
Now that iOS has been updated to 4, it should be safe to include poster images with HTML5 video and not prevent playback on devices such as the iPad. Inserting a poster image is as simple as embedding video with this plugin.
Just as you upload the .ogg and .mp4 video types to the “wp-content/uploads” folder, you can also upload a poster image to this same directory as well. The poster image can be named anything; it does not have to be named the same as the videos. An example of the shortcode you would use now to include a poster image with your HTML5 video would be:
[video src="funnycats" height="360" width="480" poster="fuzzy-kitty.jpg"]
And just like that, you’ll have HTML5 video embedded into your post with the “fuzzy-kitty.jpg” cover image.
Hopefully this update clears up some issues with video playback on IE as well. Looking back over the code for the plugin I noticed that I may have set the wrong location for the Flowplayer script which would cause problems for the flash version to play. The location is correct now, so please update now to clear up any issues you may have had with the initial release.
And as always, if you have any questions or comments about this plugin, feel free to get in touch with me.