[whatwg] Thoughts on video accessibility

[Martin Atkins]

Silvia Pfeiffer wrote:
> 
> Take this as an example:
> 
> <video src="http://example.com/video.ogv" controls>
>  <text category="CC" lang="en" type="text/x-srt" src="caption.srt"></text>
>  <text category="SUB" lang="de" type="application/ttaf+xml"
> src="german.dfxp"></text>
>  <text category="SUB" lang="jp" type="application/smil"
> src="japanese.smil"></text>
>  <text category="SUB" lang="fr" type="text/x-srt"
> src="translation_webservice/fr/caption.srt"></text>
> </video>
> 

Could this combining of resources be achieved instead with SMIL or some 
other existing format?

If there is already a format for doing this then I think HTML should 
avoid re-inventing it unless HTML's version is better in some way.

On the other hand, if what is invented for HTML is indeed better in some 
way, it's likely to also be valuable outside of HTML, for example in 
situations where SMIL is used today. (For example, loading a video and 
its subtitles directly into a standalone player without needing to 
manually load both streams.)

What are the advantages of doing this directly in HTML rather than 
having the "src" attribute point at some sort of compound media document?