Re: Support for advanced caption features (inc rollup)

On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 7:38 AM, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:

> On Wed, 5 Dec 2012, Silvia Pfeiffer wrote:
> > On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 7:16 AM, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:
> > > On Wed, 5 Dec 2012, Silvia Pfeiffer wrote:
> > > >
> > > > (1) We (YouTube) are required to support these features in the US
> > > > (per CVAA).
> > >
> > > I'm no lawyer, but I disagree with your interpretation of the relevant
> > > requirements.
> >
> > It was not my interpretation - I was given this by YouTube.
>
> I don't recommend blindly accepting this kind of direction without being
> very clear that it is in fact needed, given the impact on the Web.
>

It is not blindly accepted, but provided by somebody who has been involved
in formulating the CVAA.
Please go and check with the YouTube lawyers if you do not take my word on
this.


> > I don't think browsers should support your use case.
> >
> > Please note that you are not just objecting to roll-up with your
> > statements.
>
> I'm not objecting to roll-up, I'm objecting to browsers (and especially
> WebVTT) supporting features for faithful representation of other caption
> formats, especially caption formats that have constraints that do not
> apply on the Web.
>

Most of those features have been developed as a reaction to user
requirements, which are no different on the Web than they are on TV. In
fact, the only feature that is TV-specific is to avoid an overscan area and
we already support this in the spec:
https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=16864 .


> There are other features that the "Region" spec also enables.
>
> If there are specific use cases that should be addressed, please file
> bugs describing them.
>

These features have been discussed on this mailing list for more than a
year. Also there are bugs at:
https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=16706
https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=15859

I could register bugs on the other issues (such as a separate styling of
text background to cue background; moving captions in the UA), but as long
as the big things are not solved (such as rollup; fixed positioning), it
seems moot to start worrying about the smaller issues that fall out as a
result of solving the big issues.

Silvia.