Using Multimedia in Web Design is not that "Simple"

So having spent a lot of time today tippedy tapping, reading through resources and playing around with code in my html doc I have come to realise that using sounds and videos in your web content is not as simple as I had thought.

Web browsers firstly can be drastically different when using multimedia and what works lovely in Internet Explorer does not seem to work in Chrome or Firefox for example. 

Secondly I have been forced to learn a bit about "Plug ins".  Basically ye old HTML is fabulous for using text, images and links for example, but when it comes to using more fancy interactive stuff like videos in your web pages you may need some extra software called a Plug in to be able to view it.   For example you can download and install Adode Flash player for use on sites with videos or games.

I understand that the web industry is doing some work on updating the age old Plug ins and are doing some work to integrate this sort of software into web browsers.  Plug ins can be a security risk also as they work independently from your browser and are often out of date so do not contain the latest security fixes. 

So given what I have learned today I may put my Multimedia content on hold just for now. 

In a bit :)