Because the plugins in question are for the operating system's video infrastructure (Quicktime and DirectShow), not the browser. <video> still acts as a standa

Because the plugins in question are for the operating system's video infrastructure (Quicktime and DirectShow), not the browser. <video> still acts as a standard platform API across browsers regardless of codec support. It's not like the bad old days where you would have your page manually loading opaque QT or WM or Real plugins through <object> and <embed>.