Here's a rundown of the major media players and their support:<br><br>Windows Media - <a href="http://www.illiminable.com/ogg/">Requires third party plugin</a><br>Quicktime 7 - <a href="http://xiph.org/quicktime/">Requires Xiph.org plugin
</a><br>Real Player - <a href="https://helixcommunity.org/frs/?group_id=7">Requires Helix plugin</a><br><br>In effect, no major media player supports Theora out of the box. It's interesting to note that MPEG, H.263, and MPEG4/H.264 are far more "standard" across media players. Which, I think, means that the spec should recommend support for these formats.
<br><br>However, a variety of good points were raised in a thread a few months back. What you effectively have here is if you choose a free format that anyone can implement, you alienate the commercial implementations due to their due-diligence fears.
<br><br>(Which, as an aside, are justified when it comes to media technology. This stuff is so mired in patents, it isn't even funny. H.263 was intended to be an "open" spec that anyone could implement at no cost. It didn't take long for patents to start coming out of the woodwork and effectively close the format off.)
<br><br>On the other hand, if you choose commercially supported formats like MPEG/MPEG4, you run into the issue that the "free software" camp is afraid of being unable to produce a GPL-compliant version FFMPEG exists, but distros are not legally able to ship it. The user has to download and install it after the fact, in a psuedo-legal workaround.
<br><br>Both sides argue that users can download a simple plugin which will make either possible standard work. Which is true, but it ignores the fact that Flash ships with the H.263 codec by default and is kicking everyone's sorry asses in the online video space. As long as Flash has a consistent video format that everyone can use and HTML 5 doesn't, Flash is going to be the defacto standard.
<br><br>I don't think there are any easy answers here. About the best solution I can come up with is to provide browser detection of media formats. That way web developers can do a runtime test for a media format and tell the user "Hey, you need to install a plugin" if the format chosen by the website is not available. Since the vast majority of computers have MPEG4 support, that will likely become the resulting "standard" like JPGs and GIFs.
<br><br>If enough people push long enough and hard enough for Theora, it will become a new standard alongside these existing formats, much like PNG. Especially if a few major web browsers ship Theora support long enough to assuage fears over its unknown patent status.
<br><br>Thanks,<br>Jerason Banes<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Dec 12, 2007 6:00 AM, Sanghyeon Seo <<a href="mailto:sanxiyn@gmail.com">sanxiyn@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
>From what I read, it is argued, that "pre-existing use by large<br>companies" is a good indication of less risk for submarine patents.<br><br>It is also argued, that Theora has not much "pre-exsting use by large
<br>companies", and among others, H.264 does.<br><br>Is this really true? I have a hard time believing that no "large<br>companies" shipped Theora decoder ever. And how large is large? I<br>would appreciate any information on this matter.
<br><br>--<br><font color="#888888">Seo Sanghyeon<br></font></blockquote></div><br>