Video is a bit of a sticky wicket when it comes to web development. There are a number fo different approaches, all of wich have drawbacks. As of  WordPress 3.3.1 there is nothing built into the core that allows easy video embedding via the post editor. The following are the most common ways to embed video. See for yourself wich technique(s) work best for your combination of operating system, browser, browser version and connections speed. The same video will be used in all examples.

Embed Tag

[html]
<embed type="video/mp4" width="352" height="299" src="https://data.justinwhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/test.mp4" />
[/html]

Object Tag

[html]
<object width="352" height="299" data="https://data.justinwhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/test.mp4"></object>
[/html]

Video Tag

[html]
<video width="352" height="299" controls="controls">
<source src="https://data.justinwhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/test.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
Your browser does not support video
</video>
[/html]

And finally according to imfamous and highly contraversial W3schools

The “best” solution

[html]
<video width="352" height="299" controls="controls">
<source src="https://data.justinwhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/test.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
<object data="https://data.justinwhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/test.mp4" width="352" height="299">
<embed src="https://data.justinwhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/test.mp4" width="352" height="299"">
Your browser does not support video
</embed>
</object>
</video>
[/html]

How many barking dogs can you see? So where does this leave us? Well, you can begin to understand why you see so many Youtube and Vimeo embeds across the web. It’s just easier to let them do the heavy lifting…