Re: Issue 142: Video Poster (or, what's in a name?)

Hi, Leonie:

Léonie Watson writes:
> "Why can't this work?
> 
> <video src=kittens.webm poster=kittens.jpg alt="two lovely kittens in a basket">
> 
> with the alt being the short textual alternative that can be used to seduce people to click the video (presumably, what the explicit poster or first frame is to do), at which point the full glory subtitles/ tracks etc are unleashed?"
> 

That's fine as far as it goes. My understanding, though, is that it
doesn't go far enough. We have also the circumstance:

<video src=kittens.webm alt="two lovely kittens in a basket">

In other words, there's an implicit poster=

As I understand it, the spec explicitly defines what happens in this
second instance--where there's no poster specified. The spec says that
the first frame of the video is to be displayed. Thus, the behavior is
the same, the user's sees the same result, as if there were an actual
poster=kittens.jpg specified.

I would submit, therefore, that the aabove alt on the video element
should also be specified by the spec. Inasmuch as the spec sees fit to
provide a mechanism for what I would provisionally call a virtual
poster, it should similarly specify the appropriate alt mechanism for
that poster.


So far, so good, in my mind. However, it seems we may have more
elaborate requirements than a simple alt, i.e. a long description, i18n
tagging for any text in the poster, etc.

Janina

Received on Thursday, 6 January 2011 18:13:19 UTC