Re: [whatwg] Video proposals

Robert Brodrecht schreef:
>> I  don't see how you're going to avoid that with
>> <video> unless you intend  to make it a non-pluggable system, which does
>> not seem like a good idea.
>>     
>
> I think that was the idea.  I don't need plugins for certain media files,
> e.g., GIF, JPEG, and PNG (and maybe WAV, MP3, and MIDI using bgsound in IE
> if that is still around).  If a certain set of cross-platform video codecs
> could be supported, there would be no need for a plugin.  The OS / browser
> would be built to understand those codecs, and a hefty set of plugin
> controls wouldn't need to be exposed to the author.
>   

You do need a plugin for SVG. So you’re saying that whether or not a 
file qualifies for <img> or <video> does not depend on the file type but 
on whether it is supported natively by the browser? That is some strange 
semantics. Maybe you should rename it to 
<video-that-we-natively-support>, would be more accurate.

Anyway, I find it doubtful that you can get browsers to agree. 
Especially since two of them have say, a special interest in certain 
non-open formats. In addition to that, I think it’s important to not 
make innovating people or companies second-class citizens by not 
allowing them to plug into the browser here. That’s a step backwards, 
not forwards. Also, a plugin system would allow adoption of a new video 
format (take SVG and the IE SVG plugin for example) in one browser 
without having to depend on the other’s willingness to do so as well.

> What WHATWG has been shooting for, is one common codec.  At this point,
> WHATWG folks want Theora.  Apparently, that may still have some licensing
> issues.  However, if the browser vendors would come together and figure
> out a set of codecs to support - or just ONE modern, shared codec - it
> could be a de facto standard and wouldn't have to be put in HTML 5.

If it’s supposed to be de facto I definitely don’t see the browsers 
having a common subset of supported video formats.

I can see the browser support list already:

Apple - Quicktime
IE - Windows Media
Mozilla - Theora and MPEG4
Opera - Theora
Playstation browser - MPEG4

Btw, Theora is nice an all, but… for music MP3 is the de facto standard, 
so playing MP3 makes the most sense for audio. Why, then, take Theora 
and not MPEG4, which is the de facto standard in video (at least outside 
the web)? I know you guys like openness, but I’m sure all hell would 
break loose if the browser wouldn’t support MP3 but Ogg Vorbis instead. 
MPEG4 is a codec that’s superior to Theora, and as far as I know MPEG4 
can—just like MP3—be implemented on a royalty-free basis; the patent 
holder only charges for encoding? Maybe I’m wrong on that last point, 
but anyway.


~Grauw

-- 
Ushiko-san! Kimi wa doushite, Ushiko-san nan da!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Laurens Holst, student, university of Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Website: www.grauw.nl. Backbase employee; www.backbase.com.