Re: Metadata in the VTT file header (bug 15851), use cases (and a need to close this)

On Fri, 14 Sep 2012, Ralph Giles wrote:
> On 12-09-14 2:27 PM, Ian Hickson wrote:
> > 
> > Wide usage was not a great concern. If it was, we'd likely have gone 
> > for something used a lot more, e.g. the formats used with TV 
> > broadcasts or on DVDs, which are used way more than SRT. SRT was 
> > mostly a niche format for video enthusiasts online.
> 
> I...wow. I'm pretty sure the number of distinct entities creating 
> subtitles in SRT dwarfs those creating in DVD and broadcast TV formats. 

I don't have precise numbers, but I'd be shocked if the number of 
consumers of DVD subtitles or broadcast captions was lower than the number 
of consumers of SRT files. But I guess it depends what you're measuring.

Luckily it doesn't really matter, since we didn't pick SRT based on either 
of those metrics.


> And you know DVD-Video uses bitmaps for subtitles, right? That wouldn't 
> have met a lot of our use cases.

Indeed. Like I said, we picked SRT due to use cases, not due to usage 
metrics.


Anyway this is all moot now. I was just saying that the premise of 
Jean-Baptiste's comment was false, and so it does not argue against 
Philip's point.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Saturday, 15 September 2012 01:48:46 UTC