HTML 5 <source> Tag

The HTML <source> tag is used to specify multiple media resources on media elements (such as <audio> and <video>).

This element allows you to specify alternative video and audio files which the browser may choose from based on its media type or codec support.

The <source> tag was introduced in HTML 5.

Example

In the example below, two files have been specified. The browser should choose which file (if any) it has support for.

Attributes

HTML tags can contain one or more attributes. Attributes are added to a tag to provide the browser with more information about how the tag should appear or behave. Attributes consist of a name and a value separated by an equals (=) sign, with the value surrounded by double quotes. Here's an example, style="color:black;".

There are 3 kinds of attributes that you can add to your HTML tags: Element-specific, global, and event handler content attributes.

The attributes that you can add to this tag are listed below.

Element-Specific Attributes

The following table shows the attributes that are specific to this tag/element.

AttributeDescription
srcSpecifies the location of the audio/video file. Its value must be the URL of an audio/video file.
typeSpecifies the type of the embedded content. If specified, the value must be a MIME type.

mediaSpecifies the type of media resource, so the browser can determine whether it can play it or not. If not, it can choose not to download it. If specified, the value must be a valid media query.

Global Attributes

The following attributes are standard across all HTML 5 tags (although the tabindex attribute does not apply to dialog elements).

For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 global attributes.

Event Handler Content Attributes

Event handler content attributes enable you to invoke a script from within your HTML. The script is invoked when a certain "event" occurs. Each event handler content attribute deals with a different event.

For a full list of event handlers, see HTML 5 event handler content attributes.