How can you embed video that will play requardless of what kind of player a viewer may or may not have?

I have downloaded several video files and injected them into my web site. Problem is I dont have this plug in or that player and it leaves a error when I preview. Is there a way to embed video where a person can view requardless of what player/plug in they currently have on their computer? I assume there must be html code that could accomplish this.