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Use javascript variable for video source in HTML [duplicate]

I'm trying to build a video player that works everywhere. so far I'd be going with:
<video>
<source src="video.mp4"></source>
<source src="video.ogv"></source>
<object data="flowplayer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash">
<param name="movie" value="flowplayer.swf" />
<param name="flashvars" value='config={"clip":"video.mp4"}' />
</object>
</video>
(as seen on several sites, for example video for everybody)
so far, so good.
But now I also want some kind of playlist/menu along with the video player, from which I can select other videos. Those should be opened within my player right away. So I will have to "dynamically change the source of the video" (as seen on dev.opera.com/articles/everything-you-need-to-know-html5-video-audio/ - section "Let's look at another movie") with Javascript. Let's forget about the Flash player (and thus IE) part for the time being, I will try to deal with that later.
So my JS to change the <source> tags should be something like:
<script>
function loadAnotherVideo() {
var video = document.getElementsByTagName('video')[0];
var sources = video.getElementsByTagName('source');
sources[0].src = 'video2.mp4';
sources[1].src = 'video2.ogv';
video.load();
}
</script>
The problem is, this doesn't work in all browsers. Namely, in Firefox there is a nice page where you can observe the problem I'm having: http://www.w3.org/2010/05/video/mediaevents.html
As soon as I trigger the load() method (in Firefox, mind you), the video player dies.
Now I have found out that when I don't use multiple <source> tags, but instead just one src attribute within the <video> tag, the whole thing does work in Firefox.
So my plan is to just use that src attribute and determine the appropriate file using the canPlayType() function.
Am I doing it wrong somehow or complicating things?

I hated all these answers because they were too short or relied on other frameworks.
Here is "one" vanilla JS way of doing this, working in Chrome, please test in other browsers:
var video = document.getElementById('video');
var source = document.createElement('source');
source.setAttribute('src', 'http://techslides.com/demos/sample-videos/small.mp4');
source.setAttribute('type', 'video/mp4');
video.appendChild(source);
video.play();
console.log({
src: source.getAttribute('src'),
type: source.getAttribute('type'),
});
setTimeout(function() {
video.pause();
source.setAttribute('src', 'http://techslides.com/demos/sample-videos/small.webm');
source.setAttribute('type', 'video/webm');
video.load();
video.play();
console.log({
src: source.getAttribute('src'),
type: source.getAttribute('type'),
});
}, 3000);
<video id="video" width="320" height="240"></video>
External Link

Modernizr worked like a charm for me.
What I did is that I didn't use <source>. Somehow this screwed things up, since the video only worked the first time load() was called. Instead I used the source attribute inside the video tag -> <video src="blabla.webm" /> and used Modernizr to determine what format the browser supported.
<script>
var v = new Array();
v[0] = [
"videos/video1.webmvp8.webm",
"videos/video1.theora.ogv",
"videos/video1.mp4video.mp4"
];
v[1] = [
"videos/video2.webmvp8.webm",
"videos/video2.theora.ogv",
"videos/video2.mp4video.mp4"
];
v[2] = [
"videos/video3.webmvp8.webm",
"videos/video3.theora.ogv",
"videos/video3.mp4video.mp4"
];
function changeVid(n){
var video = document.getElementById('video');
if(Modernizr.video && Modernizr.video.webm) {
video.setAttribute("src", v[n][0]);
} else if(Modernizr.video && Modernizr.video.ogg) {
video.setAttribute("src", v[n][1]);
} else if(Modernizr.video && Modernizr.video.h264) {
video.setAttribute("src", v[n][2]);
}
video.load();
}
</script>
Hopefully this will help you :)
If you don't want to use Modernizr , you can always use CanPlayType().

Your original plan sounds fine to me. You'll probably find more browser quirks dealing with dynamically managing the <source> elements, as indicated here by the W3 spec note:
Dynamically modifying a source element and its attribute when the element is already inserted in a video or audio element will have no effect. To change what is playing, just use the src attribute on the media element directly, possibly making use of the canPlayType() method to pick from amongst available resources. Generally, manipulating source elements manually after the document has been parsed is an unncessarily[sic] complicated approach.
http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#the-source-element

I solved this with this simple method
function changeSource(url) {
var video = document.getElementById('video');
video.src = url;
video.play();
}

Instead of getting the same video player to load new files, why not erase the entire <video> element and recreate it. Most browsers will automatically load it if the src's are correct.
Example (using Prototype):
var vid = new Element('video', { 'autoplay': 'autoplay', 'controls': 'controls' });
var src = new Element('source', { 'src': 'video.ogg', 'type': 'video/ogg' });
vid.update(src);
src.insert({ before: new Element('source', { 'src': 'video.mp4', 'type': 'video/mp4' }) });
$('container_div').update(vid);

According to the spec
Dynamically modifying a source element and its attribute when the
element is already inserted in a video or audio element will have no
effect. To change what is playing, just use the src attribute on the
media element directly, possibly making use of the canPlayType()
method to pick from amongst available resources. Generally,
manipulating source elements manually after the document has been
parsed is an unncessarily complicated approach.
So what you are trying to do is apparently not supposed to work.

Just put a div and update the content...
<script>
function setvideo(src) {
document.getElementById('div_video').innerHTML = '<video autoplay controls id="video_ctrl" style="height: 100px; width: 100px;"><source src="'+src+'" type="video/mp4"></video>';
document.getElementById('video_ctrl').play();
}
</script>
<button onClick="setvideo('video1.mp4');">Video1</button>
<div id="div_video"> </div>

Yaur: Although what you have copied and pasted is good advice, this does not mean that it is impossible to change the source element of an HTML5 video element elegantly, even in IE9 (or IE8 for that matter).(This solution does NOT involve replacing the entire video element, as it is bad coding practice).
A complete solution to changing/switching videos in HTML5 video tags via javascript can be found here and is tested in all HTML5 browser (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, IE9, etc).
If this helps, or if you're having trouble, please let me know.

This is my solution:
<video id="playVideo" width="680" height="400" controls="controls">
<source id="sourceVideo" src="{{video.videoHigh}}" type="video/mp4">
</video>
<br />
<button class="btn btn-warning" id="{{video.videoHigh}}" onclick="changeSource(this)">HD</button>
<button class="btn btn-warning" id="{{video.videoLow}}" onclick="changeSource(this)">Regular</button>
<script type="text/javascript">
var getVideo = document.getElementById("playVideo");
var getSource = document.getElementById("sourceVideo");
function changeSource(vid) {
var geturl = vid.id;
getSource .setAttribute("src", geturl);
getVideo .load()
getVideo .play();
getVideo .volume = 0.5;
}
</script>

I have a similar web app and am not facing that sort of problem at all. What i do is something like this:
var sources = new Array();
sources[0] = /path/to/file.mp4
sources[1] = /path/to/another/file.ogg
etc..
then when i want to change the sources i have a function that does something like this:
this.loadTrack = function(track){
var mediaSource = document.getElementsByTagName('source')[0];
mediaSource.src = sources[track];
var player = document.getElementsByTagName('video')[0];
player.load();
}
I do this so that the user can make their way through a playlist, but you could check for userAgent and then load the appropriate file that way. I tried using multiple source tags like everyone on the internet suggested, but i found it much cleaner, and much more reliable to manipulate the src attribute of a single source tag. The code above was written from memory, so i may have glossed over some of hte details, but the general idea is to dynamically change the src attribute of the source tag using javascript, when appropriate.

Another way you can do in Jquery.
HTML
<video id="videoclip" controls="controls" poster="" title="Video title">
<source id="mp4video" src="video/bigbunny.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
</video>
<div class="list-item">
<ul>
<li class="item" data-video = "video/bigbunny.mp4">Big Bunny.</li>
</ul>
</div>
Jquery
$(".list-item").find(".item").on("click", function() {
let videoData = $(this).data("video");
let videoSource = $("#videoclip").find("#mp4video");
videoSource.attr("src", videoData);
let autoplayVideo = $("#videoclip").get(0);
autoplayVideo.load();
autoplayVideo.play();
});

I come with this to change video source dynamically. "canplay" event sometime doesn't fire in Firefox so i have added "loadedmetadata". Also i pause previous video if there is one...
var loadVideo = function(movieUrl) {
console.log('loadVideo()');
$videoLoading.show();
var isReady = function (event) {
console.log('video.isReady(event)', event.type);
video.removeEventListener('canplay', isReady);
video.removeEventListener('loadedmetadata', isReady);
$videoLoading.hide();
video.currentTime = 0;
video.play();
},
whenPaused = function() {
console.log('video.whenPaused()');
video.removeEventListener('pause', whenPaused);
video.addEventListener('canplay', isReady, false);
video.addEventListener('loadedmetadata', isReady, false); // Sometimes Firefox don't trigger "canplay" event...
video.src = movieUrl; // Change actual source
};
if (video.src && !video.paused) {
video.addEventListener('pause', whenPaused, false);
video.pause();
}
else whenPaused();
};

Using the <source /> tags proved difficult for me in Chrome 14.0.835.202 specifically, although it worked fine for me in FireFox. (This could be my lack of knowledge, but I thought an alternate solution might be useful anyway.) So, I ended up just using a <video /> tag and setting the src attribute right on the video tag itself. The canPlayVideo('<mime type>') function was used to determine whether or not the specific browser could play the input video. The following works in FireFox and Chrome.
Incidently, both FireFox and Chrome are playing the "ogg" format, although Chrome recommends "webm". I put the check for browser support of "ogg" first only because other posts have mentioned that FireFox prefers the ogg source first (i.e. <source src="..." type="video/ogg"/> ). But, I haven't tested (and highly doubt) whether or not it the order in the code makes any difference at all when setting the "src" on the video tag.
HTML
<body onload="setupVideo();">
<video id="media" controls="true" preload="auto" src="">
</video>
</body>
JavaScript
function setupVideo() {
// You will probably get your video name differently
var videoName = "http://video-js.zencoder.com/oceans-clip.mp4";
// Get all of the uri's we support
var indexOfExtension = videoName.lastIndexOf(".");
//window.alert("found index of extension " + indexOfExtension);
var extension = videoName.substr(indexOfExtension, videoName.length - indexOfExtension);
//window.alert("extension is " + extension);
var ogguri = encodeURI(videoName.replace(extension, ".ogv"));
var webmuri = encodeURI(videoName.replace(extension, ".webm"));
var mp4uri = encodeURI(videoName.replace(extension, ".mp4"));
//window.alert(" URI is " + webmuri);
// Get the video element
var v = document.getElementById("media");
window.alert(" media is " + v);
// Test for support
if (v.canPlayType("video/ogg")) {
v.setAttribute("src", ogguri);
//window.alert("can play ogg");
}
else if (v.canPlayType("video/webm")) {
v.setAttribute("src", webmuri);
//window.alert("can play webm");
}
else if (v.canPlayType("video/mp4")) {
v.setAttribute("src", mp4uri);
//window.alert("can play mp4");
}
else {
window.alert("Can't play anything");
}
v.load();
v.play();
}

I have been researching this for quite a while and I am trying to do the same thing, so hopefully this will help someone else. I have been using crossbrowsertesting.com and literally testing this in almost every browser known to man. The solution I've got currently works in Opera, Chrome, Firefox 3.5+, IE8+, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPad 1+, Android 2.3+, Windows Phone 8.
Dynamically Changing Sources
Dynamically changing the video is very difficult, and if you want a Flash fallback you will have to remove the video from the DOM/page and re-add it so that Flash will update because Flash will not recognize dynamic updates to Flash vars. If you're going to use JavaScript to change it dynamically, I would completely remove all <source> elements and just use canPlayType to set the src in JavaScript and break or return after the first supported video type and don't forget to dynamically update the flash var mp4. Also, some browsers won't register that you changed the source unless you call video.load(). I believe the issue with .load() you were experiencing can be fixed by first calling video.pause(). Removing and adding video elements can slow down the browser because it continues buffering the removed video, but there's a workaround.
Cross-browser Support
As far as the actual cross-browser portion, I arrived at Video For Everybody as well. I already tried the MediaelementJS Wordpress plugin, which turned out to cause a lot more issues than it resolved. I suspect the issues were due to the Wordpress plug-in and not the actually library. I'm trying to find something that works without JavaScript, if possible. So far, what I've come up with is this plain HTML:
<video width="300" height="150" controls="controls" poster="http://sandbox.thewikies.com/vfe-generator/images/big-buck-bunny_poster.jpg" class="responsive">
<source src="http://clips.vorwaerts-gmbh.de/big_buck_bunny.ogv" type="video/ogg" />
<source src="http://clips.vorwaerts-gmbh.de/big_buck_bunny.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
<source src="http://clips.vorwaerts-gmbh.de/big_buck_bunny.webm" type="video/webm" />
<source src="http://alex-watson.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/big_buck_bunny.iphone.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
<source src="http://alex-watson.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/big_buck_bunny.iphone3g.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://releases.flowplayer.org/swf/flowplayer-3.2.1.swf" width="561" height="297">
<param name="movie" value="http://releases.flowplayer.org/swf/flowplayer-3.2.1.swf" />
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />
<param name="wmode" value="transparent" />
<param name="flashVars" value="config={'playlist':['http://sandbox.thewikies.com/vfe-generator/images/big-buck-bunny_poster.jpg',{'url':'http://clips.vorwaerts-gmbh.de/big_buck_bunny.mp4','autoPlay':false}]}" />
<img alt="No Video" src="http://sandbox.thewikies.com/vfe-generator/images/big-buck-bunny_poster.jpg" width="561" height="297" title="No video playback capabilities, please download the video below" />
</object>
<strong>Download video:</strong> MP4 format | Ogg format | WebM format
</video>
Important notes:
Ended up putting the ogg as the first <source> because Mac OS Firefox quits trying to play the video if it encounters an MP4 as the first <source>.
The correct MIME types are important .ogv files should be video/ogg, not video/ogv
If you have HD video, the best transcoder I've found for HD quality OGG files is Firefogg
The .iphone.mp4 file is for iPhone 4+ which will only play videos that are MPEG-4 with H.264 Baseline 3 Video and AAC audio. The best transcoder I found for that format is Handbrake, using the iPhone & iPod Touch preset will work on iPhone 4+, but to get iPhone 3GS to work you need to use the iPod preset which has much lower resolution which I added as video.iphone3g.mp4.
In the future we will be able to use a media attribute on the <source> elements to target mobile devices with media queries, but right now the older Apple and Android devices don't support it well enough.
Edit:
I'm still using Video For Everybody but now I've transitioned to using FlowPlayer, to control the Flash fallback, which has an awesome JavaScript API that can be used to control it.

Try moving the OGG source to the top. I've noticed Firefox sometimes gets confused and stops the player when the one it wants to play, OGG, isn't first.
Worth a try.

You shouldn't try to change the src attribute of a source element, according to this spec note .
Dynamically modifying a source element and its attribute when the element is
already inserted in a video or audio element will have no effect. To
change what is playing, just use the src attribute on the media
element directly
So lets say you have:
<audio>
<source src='./first-src'/>
</audio>
To modify the src:
<audio src='./second-src'/>
<source src='./first-src'/>
</audio>

if you already have a loaded video and you try to upload a new one over that one make sure to use the videoRef.load() on the second one, otherwise it wont load.
*videoRef should be the ref of the displayed <video></video> tag

Using JavaScript and jQuery:
<script src="js/jquery.js"></script>
...
<video id="vid" width="1280" height="720" src="v/myvideo01.mp4" controls autoplay></video>
...
function chVid(vid) {
$("#vid").attr("src",vid);
}
...
<div onclick="chVid('v/myvideo02.mp4')">See my video #2!</div>

I ended up making the accepted ansower into a function and improving the resume to keep the time. TLDR
/**
* https://stackoverflow.com/a/18454389/4530300
* This inspired a little function to replace a video source and play the video.
* #param video
* #param source
* #param src
* #param type
*/
function swapSource(video, source, src, type) {
let dur = video.duration;
let t = video.currentTime;
// var video = document.getElementById('video');
// var source = document.createElement('source');
video.pause();
source.setAttribute('src', src);
source.setAttribute('type', type);
video.load();
video.currentTime = t;
// video.appendChild(source);
video.play();
console.log("Updated Sorce: ", {
src: source.getAttribute('src'),
type: source.getAttribute('type'),
});
}

Autoplay music on chrome

I have found only deprecated anwers so i need to ask how to make autoplay on chrome?
<audio autoplay loop controls src="./audio/menu.wav" data-start-screen-audio></audio>
let music = new Audio("./audio/menu.wav");
music.addEventListener("canplaythrough", function () {
music.play();
});
these two metods works on other browsers but on chrome not, how to fix that?

by default in modern browser, this is not allowed but if you add the muted attribute it will work fine
as they mention here in mdn
Note: Sites that automatically play audio (or videos with an audio track) can be an unpleasant experience for users, so should be avoided when possible. If you must offer autoplay functionality, you should make it opt-in (requiring a user to specifically enable it). However, this can be useful when creating media elements whose source will be set at a later time, under user control.
but in the case of media content you could run the play action from js
like this
<video src="" id="videoEl">
document.onload = function(){
document.getElementById('videoEL').play()
}
for more info check the autoplay guide

You may simply use (.autoplay = true;) as following (tested on Chrome Desktop):
<audio id="audioID" loop> <source src="path/audio.mp3" type="audio/mp3"></audio>
<script>
var myaudio = document.getElementById("audioID").autoplay = true;
</script>

HD control for HTML5 video

I have set up an Html5 video and it has the basic controls. However, the video I uploaded is quite heavy and I would like to give a lower resolution option, like an HD switch control. I looked on the internet on how to apply an HD button to html5 but the primary solution seems to install a video player. Is there a simpler way to implement an HD button without needing to install the video player? I already set up my html5 video with several jQuery commands and I would not like to go through the effort of starting from scratch again. I also looked that one could customise the html5 video controls as well. Would one be able to set up a customised HD button through html/javascript only? If yes, how one does it?
Here's the code I have at the moment
<video src="../Frustrated/Frustrated.mp4" controls preload="metadata"> <source src="../Frustrated/Frustrated.mp4" type="video/mp4">

you could probably make this look a lot more elegant, but the code sample below will allow you to have buttons which change the source between HD and regular versions (based on the ID of the button, but you can change the logic if needed). The code also checks to see if the browser supports mp4, ogg or webm and defaults to the first supported format (so you'd potentially need encodes for each type if you make use of that part of the code
<video width="400" controls id="video">
<source src="../Frustrated/furstrated.mp4" type="video/mp4">
Your browser does not support HTML5 video.
</video>
<br>
<button id="frustratedHD" onclick="playvid(this)">HD</button><button id="frustrated" onclick="playvid(this)">Regular</button>
<script>
// gets the video element
var video = document.getElementById("video");
// sets the extension / container we'll use
var vidType = "";
// identifies what type of video we can play, assuming this is an HTML5 supporting browser
if (video.canPlayType) {
if (video.canPlayType('video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E"') == "probably") {
vidType = "mp4"
} else {
if (video.canPlayType('video/ogg; codecs="theora"') == "probably") {
vidType = "ogg"
} else { if (video.canPlayType('video/webm; codecs="vp8, vorbis"') == "probably") {
vidType = "webm"
}
}
}
}
// you'll want to decide how to handle no supported video type...
function playvid(vid) {
// log selected item to confirm selection, can comment this line out
console.log("../Frustrated/" + vid.id + "." + vidType)
// set the video element source to selected content and correct type
video.src = "../Frustrated/" + vid.id + "." + vidType
video.play();
}
</script>

Upload the video in different qualities to your server, and play a different video depending on the quality the user has chosen.
Even if it's possible to downgrade a video on the client side, it's pointless, because the client still has to download the HD video in order to convert it.

HTML5 Video Seamless Looping

I know this question has been asked a number of times, and I've looked through every single one of them here on StackOverflow.
I'm simply trying to loop a 5 second MP4 video in an HTML5 player and have it be seamless. I've tried both jwplayer and video.js, both locally and on webspace, and neither do the trick. I've tried using the "ended" events; I've tried preloading/prebuffering; I've tried listening for the final second of a video and then seeking to the beginning to bypass the stop/play events entirely. I still always see jitter, and I still always see the loading icon (latest Chrome & Firefox).
For reference, here's some of my latest code for video.js:
<video id="loop_me" class="video-js vjs-default-skin vjs-big-play-centered"
width="640" height="480"
data-setup='{"controls": false, "autoplay": true, "loop": true, "preload": "auto"}'>
<source src="video/loop_me.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
</video>
<script type="text/javascript">
var myPlayer = videojs("loop_me");
videojs("loop_me").ready(function(){
this.on("timeupdate", function(){
var whereYouAt = myPlayer.currentTime();
if (whereYouAt > 4) {
myPlayer.currentTime(1);
}
});
});
</script>
Has anyone managed to do this successfully? And, if so, could you please post a complete solution? I don't normally ask for or want those, but I think it might be necessary this time.

Try this:
1) edit your video this way:
[1s][2s][3s][4s][5s]
cut 1st second block of the video and append it 2x to the end like this:
[2s][3s][4s][5s][1s][1s]
2) Use code:
<video id="vid" width="100" height="50" loop autoplay preload="true">
<source src="something.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>
<!-- Goes to end of body of course -->
<script>
var vid = document.getElementById("vid");
vid.addEventListener("timeupdate", function () {
if(this.currentTime >= 5.0) {
this.currentTime = 0.0;
}
});
</script>
The idea behind this is to make the video seamless (the end of the video is the beginning of the video). Also, you have to make sure the video never ends. The loop attribute works with smaller video files but you see a black image at the end of the video if too large (before the next looping iteration). Essentially before the video ends, you are seeking back to 0.0s.
I hope that helps.

Heureka!
We've found the actual, real, work-around-free solution to this problem over at where I work. It explains the inconsistent behavior through multiple developers as well.
The tl;dr version is: Bitrates. Who would've guessed? What I suppose is that many people use standard values for this that usually are around 10 Mbit/s for HD videos if you use the Adobe Media Encoder. This is not sufficient.
The correct value would be 18 Mbit/s or maybe even higher. 16 is still a bit janky.
I cannot express how well this works. I've, by now, tried the messiest workarounds for about five hours until I found this together with our video editor.
I hope this helps everyone and saves you tons of time!

Doozerman and Offbeatmammal are correct: no Javascript is required to loop video in HTML5.
About that pause before each iteration: in some browsers we, too, can observe a pause at the end of the loop in our tests. E.g., in the inline, 22-second demo video at...
http://www.externaldesign.com/Marlin-Ouverson.html
...under OS X, we see a ~0.5 sec. pause before the loop repeats -- only in Firefox and Safari; Chrome and Opera both play the loop without noticeable pause. But note: for desktop/laptop browsers, the above page provides an added full-screen background video that appears to loop without pause in all four of the above browsers.

You don't need any extra scripts for that kind of stuff.
The "video" tag has built in loop attribute, use this and your video will loop.
<video id="loop_me" class="video-js vjs-default-skin vjs-big-play-centered" width="640" height="480" controls autoplay loop>
<source src="video/loop_me.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
</video>
You can also add preload attribute if you wanted to. If you want, you can find more information about the video tag here: HTML video Tag
Edit: Oops. Didn't notice Offbeatmammals comment under your question. :)

How do I play a sound on Image-Click in HTML?

I'm trying to play a sound when i click or hover over my play button? Here's what i have so far. I have a button, if i hover over it it changes the Image, now i also want it to play an mp3.
play a {
position:relative;
float:left;
width:155px;
height:134px;
background-image:url(../images/Goodsound_PLAY_UP.png);
}
play a:hover {
background-image:url(../images/Goodsound_PLAY_P.png);
I want to play a sound here
}
Im sorry for asking such an easy question. I'm an html noob, started last week.

It's not that easy to play a sound in HTML. In fact, it wasn't until the html5 audio was there ! Even if html5 is not supported everywhere, it's now a little bit easier to play a sound in the browser.
My advice is to use mediaelementJS, a javascript library that fills the gap between old browser and html5 audio (and video) spec. Do not use the player (that comes with a full control bar), but use only the mediaelementjs component. To use it, simply include the library in the head of your page
<script src="js/libs/mediaelement.min.js"></script>
First, you have to put an audio tag in your html :
<audio id="mySound" src="my_audio_file.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"></audio>
Then, call the Mediaelement library
var mySound = new MediaElement('mySound');
Finally, play it on your click or over event (here I use jQuery)
$('.play a').mouseover(function(){ mySound.play() });

You can use this:
JavaScript
var audio = $("#audio");
$("play a").mouseenter( function() {
audio.play();
}
where audio is an <audio> element, and play a is element which is hover.

Using jQuery:
$("object_element_id") .on ('mouseover', function(e){
// audio play code here
});
$("object_element_id") .on ('mouseout', function(e){
// audio pause/stop code here
});
Why "on"? Just imagine a "AJAX page refresh". For remove it:
$("object_element_id") .off ('mouseenter');
Why "mouseover" and "mouseout"? Maybe you want to add extra functions for each status, like change IMG SRC of the button, make some effects... feel free. And why the "e" element? The E element is the object who fired the event - the image, the link etc. Do everything with it (or just remove it).
For audio play, you can use HTML5 tags. It's easy and are supported by the major browsers (you didn't asked "retrocompatibility") You can cache the element (like Mateusz' answer) and use it:
var $audio = $("#audio_element_id"); //for cache the element
$audio.setAttribute('src', url_link); //for change the URL file (ir can be MP3, OGG...)
$audio.play(); //for the mouseover
$audio.stop(); //for the mouseout
Then, the final code:
var $audio = $("audio_element"); //caching
$("object_element_id") .on ('mouseover', function(e){
$audio.play();
});
$("object_element_id") .on ('mouseout', function(e){
$audio.stop();
});

You might also find this code useful (I think it is fairly modern, so it might not work with old browsers; I use it with Firefox 32).
<audio controls> <source src="song.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"> </audio>
There is a similar one for video, too:
<video width="320" height="240" controls> <source src="clip.mp4" type="video/mp4"> </video>