[whatwg] Chipset support is a good argument

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On Jul 5, 2009, at 3:41 PM, Robert O'Callahan wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 8:51 AM, Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:
> For that to happen there has to be
> some demand for Theora support, though, which the spec's can't  
> generate.
>
> Specs do generate demand --- by creating author expectation that a  
> feature will be supported, by adding a well-known brand, and because  
> test suites get created which vendors then compete on.

For H.264, a lot of the demand was created by the initial ISO/ITU  
standard and the follow-on standards for hardware products such as HD  
video disc players, set-to boxes and mobile phones. This was actually  
considerably earlier than H.264 deployment on the Web. For Microsoft's  
WMV to participate in some of the same markets, it had to go through a  
formal standards process, becoming SMPTE VC-1. SMPTE has also  
standardized Dirac Pro (a subset with no interframe compression) as  
VC-2.

A spec for Theora through a formal standards process might more  
effectively focus latent demand than a mention in the HTML spec. It  
would also greatly clarify the patent situation, since many holders of  
wide-ranging patents on video compression participate in these groups.  
I've asked the Xiph folks if they'd be willing to take Theora to an  
organization such as SMPTE.[1]

Regards,
Maciej

[1] http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/theora/2009-July/002418.html

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