Goodbye Flash, Hello HTML 5

[George]

Call me when it plays Youtube videos correctly. To me it loads the 'loading bar' all the way up even though a video is not all the way loaded.

Epic fail.  :evil:

[Orta]

Call me when it plays Youtube videos correctly. To me it loads the 'loading bar' all the way up even though a video is not all the way loaded.

Epic fail.  :evil:

It only works with Chrome I think? Youtube video is poorly implemented. It doesn't work with Opera either.

[Sega Uranus]

It only works with Chrome I think? Youtube video is poorly implemented. It doesn't work with Opera either.

Maybe Opera is poorly implemented?  

[George]

Call me when it plays Youtube videos correctly. To me it loads the 'loading bar' all the way up even though a video is not all the way loaded.

Epic fail.  :evil:

It only works with Chrome I think? Youtube video is poorly implemented. It doesn't work with Opera either.

I'm using Chrome.

[Orta]

It only works with Chrome I think? Youtube video is poorly implemented. It doesn't work with Opera either.

Maybe Opera is poorly implemented?  

Nah. Youtube doesn't respect the standard on HTML5 video. It only works on Chrome, Google's browser. Google also owns Youtube. It probably works on Safari as well, but that's only because both browsers use the same engine.

[Happy Cat]

efore understanding why the new HTML5 video player does not work in some browsers, let us try to understand why HTML5 video is a big deal in the first place. One of the major problems with online streaming videos has been the lack of standardization. Some videos require Windows Media Player, some require RealPlayer, some utilise Adobe Flash while others require QuickTime. In order to view these videos, you must first install the appropriate browser  plug-ins. However, HTML5 attempts to clean up this clutter by introducing the <video> tag. The basic aim of WHAT (Web Hypertext Application Technology) working group was to free online videos from plug-in dependency by introducing native video playback. Unfortunately, due to lack of agreement between major browser vendors, the video codec itself was not standardized. Apple wanted to use H.264 video due to better compression ratio and support for hardware acceleration. However, Opera  and Mozilla refused to accept H.264 since it is a proprietary codec.

This brings us to the current situation with YouTube and Vimeo. Both YouTube and Vimeo have decided to go with H.264, which is not supported by Opera and Firefox. Hence, although Opera and Firefox support HTML5 video playback, they are not compatible with the new YouTube player. The HTML5 player works only in Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer with Chrome frame installed. So why is Opera and Mozilla opposing the H.264 codec, which is technically superior to the proposed Ogg Theora codec?

The answer to this question is not as simple as you may think. H.264 is a proprietary codec and implementing a H.264 decoder would cost the browser manufacturers approximately $5 million per year. On top of that, even content creators would be liable for loyalties starting. The problem is not just financial; it is also ideological. Mozilla Firefox is an Open Source product, which is modified and used by various downstream distributors. Including proprietary code within the product will prevent these distributors from implementing a fully functional version of Firefox.

YouTube’s decision to choose H.264 is both startling and puzzling. Chris DiBona of Google claimed that, “If [youtube] were to switch to theora and maintain even a semblance of the current youtube quality it would take up most available bandwidth across the Internet.” However, this is nothing but FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). Xiph found that the video produced by using Ogg Theora is comparable to the one produced by YouTube’s own H.264 video encoder. Ogg Theora was able to match both quality and size of the video outputted by YouTube’s encoder. Not only that, Ogg Theora clearly has a greater reach (mainly due to Firefox). DailyMotion was one of the early adopters of HTML5 and it has already demonstrated that Ogg Theora can be successfully used on a large scale.

http://www.pallab.net/2010/01/26/youtub ... gg-theora/

[fluffymoochicken]

YouTube’s decision to choose H.264 is both startling and puzzling. Chris DiBona of Google claimed that, “If [youtube] were to switch to theora and maintain even a semblance of the current youtube quality it would take up most available bandwidth across the Internet.”

Real answer:

"We're in it for the money."

[George]

OF course. They are a business. You know how much money they would spend just using another format? Seriously, I don't know how you are pinning google as bad guys. At least they offer HD now, before it was horrible quality. If anything, google improved Youtube by leaps and bounds.

[fluffymoochicken]

You know how much money they would spend just using another format?

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how H.264 is a proprietary format, and why open source projects won't support it. It's a greedy corporate standard trying to force its way in whether we'd like it or not.

Their hope is that H.264 will be forced upon us as the standard, thus competing websites will have to pay millions of dollars to use it and Google can unfairly shut out the competition, Microsoft-style.

[George]

You know how much money they would spend just using another format?

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how H.264 is a proprietary format, and why open source projects won't support it. It's a greedy corporate standard trying to force its way in whether we'd like it or not.

Their hope is that H.264 will be forced upon us as the standard, thus competing websites will have to pay millions of dollars to use it and Google can unfairly shut out the competition, Microsoft-style.

Also, what other format offers the low bitrate and quality that H.264 does. I also thought it was free to use? I know Sony and Toshiba both used it on their HD formats.

Though I don't know much on this.

[fluffymoochicken]

All the context you need to know is in the third paragraph of that article at the top of this page.

[Snowcat]

H2.64 is a good format, it supports HD very well... I export videos as H2.64 most of the time. I don't lik Ogg...

[Orta]

It costs a lot of money. Not a problem for Apple or Google. Either way, I can't see why it's not possible to implement Theora into Chrome and Safari while retaining h264. Eventually, and sadly, the fact that Youtube only supports h.264 would force everyone to use that solution.