Re: Public feedback on HTML5 video

Aryeh Gregor, Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:43:24 -0500:
> On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 7:09 AM, Scheppe, Kai-Dietrich

>> It is the authors who know what's best for their audience, within 
>> their given context.
> 
> The author doesn't know if the user is on a mobile connection where
> they're paying by the byte.  The browser might have a better idea
> (e.g., if it's a mobile browser).

If we can always trust the browser (and its vendor) to be on the user's 
side so ... 

>> On mobile devices this would yet again be rendered differently, 
>> based on device capabilities, bandwith etc.
>> ...but again calling for author's choice.
> 
> The author shouldn't have to write a separate page for mobile users
> and make different decisions.  Mobile browsers should be allowed to
> just ignore autobuffer if they think it's a good idea.
> 
> I'm not clear what changes you want to the spec.  Making autobuffer
> mandatory?  Do you really think browsers shouldn't be allowed to
> ignore it if they know they're on a connection with expensive
> bandwidth?  They should normally obey it, everyone agrees to that.

Perhaps it should have been possible to decide via CSS and media 
targeting?

The most common problem today is, I think, to _prevent_ the user agent 
from autobuffer. I assume that the reason e.g Webkit has been eager to 
buffer things, has been in order to provide a better user experience - 
my theory has always been that improved user experience has been the 
motivation for this. Therefore I can very well understand that one is 
sceptical about putting the ultimate judgement into the hands of the 
user agents.

Can we be certain that the user agent _does not_ autobuffer when the 
autobuffer attribute isn't used? Or is this also up to the user agent?
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Monday, 28 December 2009 16:37:22 UTC