[whatwg] Reworking the media load() algorithm so that it tries more than one video

[Ian Hickson]

On Sat, 15 Nov 2008, Philip Jägenstedt wrote:
>
> The changes look like improvements to me, but I have some questions.
> 
> 1. Is there any particular reason why step 7 "generate the list of 
> potential media resources" is done in the synchronous part of the 
> algorithm? Would it for example be an error to consider playing sources 
> added in a loadstart event handler? As it stands one would have to 
> actually make a list of candidate URLS and pixel ratio overrides "up 
> front". I don't really object, I just want to confirm that this is 
> intentional.

It's intentional.

While readyState is NETWORK_EMPTY, setting .src, appending <source> 
elements, or inserting a <video> into the document causes the load() 
algorithm to be implicitly run. Once readyState is NETWORK_IDLE or 
greater, those actions have no effect. So to prevent race conditions, the 
list is generated immediately before setting readyState to a value other 
than NETWORK_EMPTY.


> 2. Did you remove canPlayType? It was added in 
> http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker?from=2331&to=2332 and now it 
> seems to be gone, but I can't find the revision in which that happened.

It's on HTMLMediaElement now.


> 3. MEDIA_ERR_DECODE isn't just for corrupted data. If <source 
> type="application/ogg"> is given and the browser doesn't "know it cannot 
> render" it but it turns out that it couldn't decode any of the content 
> (perhaps it was Ogg FLAC), isn't MEDIA_ERR_DECODE precisely what should 
> happen?

No; now that load() tries multiple streams, that would cause a 
MEDIA_ERR_NONE_SUPPORTED error.


I believe you sent this e-mail as I was updating the load() algorithm and 
moving canPlayType() around, which is probable the source of your
confusion. I hope this clarifies things. Let me know if you disagree with 
the changes that were made!

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
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