[whatwg] The issue of interoperability of the <video> element

[Nicholas Shanks]

On 27 Jun 2007, at 09:28, Maik Merten wrote:

> Browsers don't rely on the OS to decode JPEG or PNG or GIF either

In my experience that seems to be exactly what they do do—rely on the  
OS to provide image decoding (as with other AV media).
I say this because changes that had occurred in the OS (such as  
adding JPEG-2000 support) are immediately picked up by my browsers.

> Firefox can decode WMV while it can't on some other (and in this case
> content providers may choose to not provide content in alternative
> formats because "Internet Explorer and Firefox on Windows cover 95% of
> potential customers and they all can do WMV" - that could grow to an
> unfortunate situation where actually "improving" interoperability with
> one media system slams the door for Linux and MacOS users).

WMV 9 is supported on the Mac OS via a (legal) download, so only  
Linux would get screwed. Once the download is installed, every app  
that uses QuickTime (including apps that have their own codecs too,  
such as RealPlayer, VLC) immediately gain the ability to play WMV  
files. Same is true for the Theora codecs from xiph.org.

I assert that any codec written by a browser vendor and available  
only within that browser is user-hostile (due to lack of system  
ubiquity), likely to be slower and buggier than the free decoding  
component written by the codec vendor themselves, and detracts from  
the time available for implementing other browser changes.

- Nicholas.
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