[whatwg] <video> and acceleration

[Ian Hickson]

On Sat, 28 Mar 2009, Benjamin M. Schwartz wrote:
>
> The <video> tag has great potential to be useful on low-powered 
> computers and computing devices, where current internet video streaming 
> solutions (such as Adobe's Flash) are too computationally expensive.  
> My personal experience is with OLPC XO-1, on which Flash (and Gnash) are 
> terribly slow for any purpose, but Theora+Vorbis playback is quite 
> smooth at reasonable resolutions and bitrates.
> 
> The <video> standard allows arbitrary manipulations of the video stream 
> within the HTML renderer.  To permit this, the initial implementations 
> (such as the one in Firefox 3.5) will perform all video decoding 
> operations on the CPU, including the tremendously expensive YUV->RGB 
> conversion and scaling.  This is viable only for moderate resolutions 
> and extremely fast processors.
> 
> Recognizing this, the Firefox developers expect that the decoding 
> process will eventually be accelerated.  However, an accelerated 
> implementation of the <video> spec inevitably requires a 3D GPU, in 
> order to permit transparent video, blended overlays, and arbitrary 
> rotations.
> 
> Pure software playback of video looks like a slideshow on the XO, or any 
> device with similar CPU power, achieving 1 or 2 fps.  However, these 
> devices typically have a 2D graphics chip that provides "video overlay" 
> acceleration: 1-bit alpha, YUV->RGB, and simple scaling, all in 
> special-purpose hardware. Using the overlay (via XVideo on Linux) allows 
> smooth, full-speed playback.
> 
> THE QUESTION:
> What is the recommended way to handle the <video> tag on such hardware?

Upgrade the hardware.


> There are two obvious solutions:
> 0. Implement the spec, and just let it be really slow.
> 1. Attempt to approximate the correct behavior, given the limitations of
> the hardware.  Make the video appear where it's supposed to appear, and
> use the 1-bit alpha (dithered?) to blend static items over it.  Ignore
> transparency of the video.  Ignore rotations, etc.
> 2. Ignore the HTML context.  Show the video "in manners more suitable to
> the user (e.g. full-screen or in an independent resizable window)".
> 
> Which is preferable?  Is it worth specifying a preferred behavior?

>From HTML's point of view, all are acceptable. From the user's point of 
view, 1 and 2 are preferable, probably at the user's option.

I don't know what else to tell you. :-)

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'