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Complete Guide to Building a Simple HTML5 Video Player with PHP

M66 2025-06-24

Tutorial: Build a Simple Video Player with PHP

Media playback has become a common feature in modern web development. This guide walks you through the process of building a simple video player using PHP, helping you understand the basic integration of PHP with front-end media controls.

1. Preparation Before Development

Before writing the code, ensure you have the following development setup and resources ready:

  1. A properly configured PHP-supported web server (such as Apache).
  2. A modern browser that supports HTML5.
  3. A playable video file (e.g., in MP4 format) with the correct file path.

2. Creating the HTML Structure

Start by creating an HTML page that will serve as the interface for your video player:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Simple Video Player</title>
</head>
<body>
    <video controls width="640" height="360">
        <source src="video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
        Your browser does not support the HTML5 video player.
    </video>
</body>
</html>

In the code above, the tag is used to embed the video player. The controls attribute adds playback controls, while width and height define the player's dimensions. The tag specifies the path and format of the video file.

3. Using PHP to Load Video Dynamically

If you'd like to dynamically generate the video file path using PHP, use the following example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Simple Video Player</title>
</head>
<body>
    <?php
        $videoPath = 'video.mp4';
    ?>
    <video controls width="640" height="360">
        <source src="<?php echo $videoPath; ?>" type="video/mp4">
        Your browser does not support the HTML5 video player.
    </video>
</body>
</html>

In this version, a PHP variable is used to set the video file path. This allows you to easily reuse the code for different videos or integrate it with dynamic data sources.

4. Running and Testing the Project

  1. Save the HTML or PHP file in your local server directory.
  2. Start your web server and open the page in your browser (e.g., http://localhost/index.php).
  3. If everything is set up correctly, you'll see a simple video player that plays the specified video file.

5. Conclusion

In this tutorial, you’ve learned how to create a basic video player using PHP and HTML5. By dynamically loading video paths with PHP, you gain flexibility in handling multiple videos. This foundation can be extended for more advanced media player features. Hopefully, this guide helped you take a solid first step in PHP media playback development.

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