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HTML <video> poster Attribute

❮ HTML <video> tag

Example

A video player with a poster image:

<video controls poster="/images/w3html5.gif">
  <source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4">
  <source src="movie.ogg" type="video/ogg">
  Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>
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Definition and Usage

The poster attribute specifies an image to be shown while the video is downloading, or until the user hits the play button. If this is not included, the first frame of the video will be used instead.

Browser Support

The numbers in the table specify the first browser version that fully supports the attribute.

Attribute
poster 4.0 9.0 3.6 4.0 10.5

Differences Between HTML 4.01 and HTML5

The <video> tag is new in HTML5.

Syntax

<video poster="URL">

Attribute Values

Value Description
URL Specifies the URL of the image file.

Possible values:

  • An absolute URL - points to another web site (like href="http://www.example.com/poster.jpg")
  • A relative URL - points to a file within a web site (like href="poster.jpg")
❮ HTML <video> tag