HTML5 Video EveryWhere is an open-source browser extension for Firefox and Chrome that replaces third-party video players on streaming sites with the browser's built-in HTML5 video player, aiming for higher performance and more stable playback.
What is HTML5 Video EveryWhere?
HTML5 Video EveryWhere is a webextension that takes a supported video page and swaps the site's proprietary player for the native browser video element. It currently supports YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Break, Metacafe, and Lego, with more sites planned. The extension is developed by Moez Bouhlel, founder of Tik, and is distributed under the MPL 2.0 License. The source code is available on GitHub, and the project includes API documentation, implementation docs, and a tutorial for adding new website support.
What makes HTML5 Video EveryWhere stand out?
- Native video replacement — On supported sites, it removes the site's video player and uses the browser's built-in HTML5 video element, improving performance and stability.
- Broad site support — Out of the box it covers YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Break, Metacafe, and Lego.
- Cross-browser build — The same source builds extensions for Firefox (through
gulp extBuildFirefox) and Google Chrome (throughgulp extBuildChrome). - Extensible architecture — The documentation includes an API and a tutorial explaining how to add support for new websites.
- Open-source license — The code is licensed under MPL 2.0 and contains code from the iaextractor project (MPL 1.1).
- Developer tooling — Building requires Node.js v8 or higher, yarn, and gulp-cli; the project includes a
gulp docstask to generate API documentation.
Who should use HTML5 Video EveryWhere?
- Streaming viewers who are frustrated by heavy or unstable embedded players and want to use the browser's lighter, native video controls.
- Users with limited hardware who need faster video playback on demanding sites like YouTube or Facebook.
- Extension developers who want to study or extend an open-source webextension that interacts with page content, or who want to contribute support for additional video sites.
Use cases
- Replace a site player: On any supported video page, the extension swaps the default player for the native HTML5 player, giving you standard browser controls like speed, picture-in-picture, and fullscreen.
- Add new site support: Developers can follow the tutorial at h5vew.tik.tn to integrate additional video websites behind the same API.
FAQ
Is HTML5 Video EveryWhere free?
Yes, the extension is free software distributed under the MPL 2.0 License. You can download it from the project website or build it yourself from the GitHub source code.
Which sites are supported?
The extension currently supports YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Break, Metacafe, and Lego. The project's roadmap says more sites are coming, and the documentation explains how to add new ones.
Will this extension break other add-ons?
Possibly. The developers note that because the extension changes page content on supported video sites, other extensions that depend on the original content may not work as expected on those pages.
