The HTML5 video rollout is a total mess
It's a temporary lift of my Blog's hiatus to express my opinion on today's HTML5 video rollout. It's an utmost near failure.
First, Mozilla releases the new version of Firefox today, 3.6. This is also the same day many Video sites start rollouts of HTML5 support.
BUT... Most people would associate this 3.6 update to Firefox to the HTML5 rollout. This is nowhere near the truth.
Firefox failed to obtain a license to use H.264 decoding in it's browser, and every implementation in today's HTML5 rollout ALL use H.264. Therefore, this left Firefox entirely cut out of this technological move to a much more streamlined and less resource intensive video playback experience.
Most people reporting on the new HTML5 video playback who actually could watch the videos in that format, like Chrome and Safari users, reported sluggish playback since it's 100% software driven (Like trying to play a video using OpenGL on VLC). The day HTML5 clients can be accelerated with hardware accelerators, (like the Broadcom Chip coming to Intel Pine Trail netbooks or NVIDIA's ION and ION 2) similar to Flash 10.1, then HTML5 would be a contender to push out Flash as a new form of playback.
And now to a couple of drawbacks/criticisms:
Vimeo
*Not all videos are encoded in MP4. Anything with very low motion (such as talking heads) or any old video encoded a long time ago is encoded in Flash VP6. It is impossible to play this in any HTML5 implementation.
*Censorship of the comments for the official blog post for the rollout is Vimeo's way of protecting their community integrity by preventing talk about codecs and browsers and sparking flame wars. I should know, one of my comments about H.264 was censored within 10 seconds.
YT
*Ad-supported videos will never be played in HTML5, since Flash is the only way to integrate the ads. This still makes them protective a little of closed-source infrastructure of applying Google Adsense and banner ads in full-screen videos.
*It's Google. They're sticking to H.264 and are very reluctant to use codecs such as OGG at the moment.
And sites that will never work with HTML5 Video: Hulu and any other TV broadcaster site.
Plus, here's what I'd also like to see in the future as this evolves: Live Streaming playback via HTML5.
So, Mozilla, MPEG-LA, you've learned your mistakes this time, let's hope there's not too big of a mess later on. Also, for those thinking about putting x264 or FFmpeg H.264 decode in Firefox... Well, that's a little of a legal grey area so it shouldn't be attempted at the moment.
And here's an editorial article from a friend: Is VP8 the Codec that solves HTML5's vender problems?
First, Mozilla releases the new version of Firefox today, 3.6. This is also the same day many Video sites start rollouts of HTML5 support.
BUT... Most people would associate this 3.6 update to Firefox to the HTML5 rollout. This is nowhere near the truth.
Firefox failed to obtain a license to use H.264 decoding in it's browser, and every implementation in today's HTML5 rollout ALL use H.264. Therefore, this left Firefox entirely cut out of this technological move to a much more streamlined and less resource intensive video playback experience.
Most people reporting on the new HTML5 video playback who actually could watch the videos in that format, like Chrome and Safari users, reported sluggish playback since it's 100% software driven (Like trying to play a video using OpenGL on VLC). The day HTML5 clients can be accelerated with hardware accelerators, (like the Broadcom Chip coming to Intel Pine Trail netbooks or NVIDIA's ION and ION 2) similar to Flash 10.1, then HTML5 would be a contender to push out Flash as a new form of playback.
And now to a couple of drawbacks/criticisms:
Vimeo
*Not all videos are encoded in MP4. Anything with very low motion (such as talking heads) or any old video encoded a long time ago is encoded in Flash VP6. It is impossible to play this in any HTML5 implementation.
*Censorship of the comments for the official blog post for the rollout is Vimeo's way of protecting their community integrity by preventing talk about codecs and browsers and sparking flame wars. I should know, one of my comments about H.264 was censored within 10 seconds.
YT
*Ad-supported videos will never be played in HTML5, since Flash is the only way to integrate the ads. This still makes them protective a little of closed-source infrastructure of applying Google Adsense and banner ads in full-screen videos.
*It's Google. They're sticking to H.264 and are very reluctant to use codecs such as OGG at the moment.
And sites that will never work with HTML5 Video: Hulu and any other TV broadcaster site.
Plus, here's what I'd also like to see in the future as this evolves: Live Streaming playback via HTML5.
So, Mozilla, MPEG-LA, you've learned your mistakes this time, let's hope there's not too big of a mess later on. Also, for those thinking about putting x264 or FFmpeg H.264 decode in Firefox... Well, that's a little of a legal grey area so it shouldn't be attempted at the moment.
And here's an editorial article from a friend: Is VP8 the Codec that solves HTML5's vender problems?
posted by Jack Zhang at 1/21/2010 02:13:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home