[Bug 18657] New: WebVTT: add file-wide default kind specification

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=18657

           Summary: WebVTT: add file-wide default kind specification
           Product: TextTracks CG
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: WebVTT
        AssignedTo: ian@hixie.ch
        ReportedBy: silviapfeiffer1@gmail.com
         QAContact: dave.null@w3.org
                CC: mike@w3.org, public-texttracks@w3.org
            Blocks: 15851


The Web browser determines via the @kind attribute on the <track> element for a
given WebVTT file the cue payload type [1] and can, as a consequence, go ahead
and render the WebVTT file in different manners (e.g. as subtitles,
descriptions, or chapters).

[1] http://dev.w3.org/html5/webvtt/#cue-payload

When the WebVTT file is delieverd together with a video, but without the HTML
file that provides the <video> and <track> glue, this cue payload information
is lost. This is typically the case for desktop players such as VLC, QuickTime
player, Windows Media Player etc.

To deliver a default @kind mapping, I suggest we introduce a file-wide metadata
header as discussed in bug 15851.

A simple name-value metadata field is sufficient such as:
Kind=Captions

This provides the default cue payload mapping for the WebVTT file.

If such a file is delievered to a HTML page through a <track> element, the
<track> element's @kind attribute would still be the cue payload interpretation
for the Web page.

It is possible to make the WebVTT metadata field the default setting for the
browser, too, in case no @kind attribute is given. But it's also ok if the
browser would just completely ignore this WebVTT metadata field and continue to
use "subtitle" as the default @kind value.

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Received on Thursday, 23 August 2012 01:30:25 UTC