Adobe has released an easy-to-use, CSS-customizable solution that shifts from the HTML5 video tag to the Flash Player when the tag is not supported.

HTML5 has received a tremendous amount of buzz, much of it driven by the potential for plugin-free video. However, the limited browser support for the HTML5 video tag has forced web designers to scramble for a solution that would work across platforms as well as browsers.

Adobe's HTML5 Video Player widget, now available through the Adobe Widget Browser, works with or without Dreamweaver CS5. Code generated from the widget plays video in the best possible player for the requested platform using a range of video codecs. Based on the Kaltura open source library, the HTML5 Video Player widget is fully cross-browser compatible with support for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera. Moreover, the player is completely customizable with industry standard CSS techniques.

You can run the Adobe Widget Browser directly from within Dreamweaver and, once you've set it up, insert the generated code and files for the HTML5 Video Player widget with point-and-click simplicity. But if you're not a Dreamweaver user, you can also download the Widget Browser independently. (You'll need to install Adobe AIR first.)