[html5] Help Digest, Vol 48, Issue 10

[Jonathan Zuckerman]

My understanding is that .wav files are hardly compressed at all, and have
not really been of much use in the past 10 years.  The .mp3 format is
patent-encumbered, which I believe means that a browser needs to pay a
licensing fee to some group in Los Angeles if they want their browser to be
able to play those files.  Same goes for .aac, although it's a slightly
higher-tech version of .mp3.  Vorbis is a non-patent encumbered codec
similar to .mp3 (it is lossy..) but with more advanced compression
algorithms.  FLAC is a non-patent encumbered free audio codec that is
lossless.  If all goes according to plan, Vorbis and FLAC will eventually
largely replace MP3 and AAC.

Because of the patents, not every browser will decide that it's worth the
cost to implement all audio codecs, and I believe the current state of
things is that no single file will work in every browser popularly in use,
so if you want to use html5 audio as much as possible, but also guarantee
that the music works in every browser, then you will need a tiered solution
offering multiple files (the browser will pick out the one that it
understands) with a final fallback to some plugin like Flash.

It is primarily about video, but this page has a lot of really good info
about audio as well: http://diveintohtml5.org/video.html#audio-codecs


On Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 3:03 PM, <help-request at lists.whatwg.org> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. HTML5 Audio Support Ready or Not? (msacks)
>   2. Re: HTML5 Audio Support Ready or Not? (Andrew Croce)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2011 08:44:34 -0700
> From: msacks <ntwrkd at gmail.com>
> To: help at lists.whatwg.org
> Subject: [html5] HTML5 Audio Support Ready or Not?
> Message-ID:
>        <CADrkmAw7h_pOStiRs_-oQQd3p8LFhyaHki0AtyjvtNp35Yphdw at mail.gmail.com
> >
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hi List,
> I was recently told that HTML5 audio support is not very good.
> Although I haven't tested this for myself I always like to support
> opinion with data and facts.
> Results on Google for articles on the subject aren't all that
> prolific, perhaps I am using the wrong query. I did find this:
> http://www.phoboslab.org/log/2011/03/the-state-of-html5-audio
>
> My question is for those of the opinion that HTML5 audio support isn't
> "very good", I'd like to know in comparison to what?
> Also, are there any articles citing an opinion for or against HTML5 Audio?
> More importantly, to those working on the specifications on this list,
> what is your experience with this.
>
>
> NOTE: I may end up using some quotes from this discussion for an
> article to be published on thebitsource com.
>
> Thank you,
> @msacks
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2011 14:56:16 -0400
> From: Andrew Croce <andrew.croce at gmail.com>
> To: msacks <ntwrkd at gmail.com>
> Cc: "help at lists.whatwg.org" <help at lists.whatwg.org>
> Subject: Re: [html5] HTML5 Audio Support Ready or Not?
> Message-ID: <2A2E7F92-5EC5-4D62-8D1F-FAB1967BC794 at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=us-ascii
>
> From what I understand the major concern is not so much whether native
> html5 audio is good or bad, but to what extent different browsers are
> supporting it. I cannot speak to the problem of audio quality, and I suspect
> that these issues will be sorted out in due time. In my opinion the problem
> right now is that there are three main formats (ogg, mp3, and wav) and
> different browsers support different ones. Currently I believe Chrome is the
> only one that supports all three.
>
> If you end up using it, right now wav format is probably the safest, with
> fallback support for flash or qt or direct download.
>
> My 2 cents,
> Andrew Croce
>
> On Aug 21, 2011, at 11:44 AM, msacks <ntwrkd at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi List,
> > I was recently told that HTML5 audio support is not very good.
> > Although I haven't tested this for myself I always like to support
> > opinion with data and facts.
> > Results on Google for articles on the subject aren't all that
> > prolific, perhaps I am using the wrong query. I did find this:
> > http://www.phoboslab.org/log/2011/03/the-state-of-html5-audio
> >
> > My question is for those of the opinion that HTML5 audio support isn't
> > "very good", I'd like to know in comparison to what?
> > Also, are there any articles citing an opinion for or against HTML5
> Audio?
> > More importantly, to those working on the specifications on this list,
> > what is your experience with this.
> >
> >
> > NOTE: I may end up using some quotes from this discussion for an
> > article to be published on thebitsource com.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > @msacks
> > _______________________________________________
> > Help mailing list
> > Help at lists.whatwg.org
> > http://lists.whatwg.org/listinfo.cgi/help-whatwg.org
>
>
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> End of Help Digest, Vol 48, Issue 10
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