[whatwg] HTML 5 video tag questions

[Gregory Maxwell]

On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 3:24 PM, Maciej Stachowiak<mjs at apple.com> wrote:
>
> On Jul 10, 2009, at 6:11 PM, Jeff Walden wrote:
>
>> On 10.7.09 17:44, Ian Hickson wrote:
>>>
>>> The design is based around the assumption that we will eventually find a
>>> common codec so that fallback won't ever be needed in supporting UAs.
>>
>> So has anyone ever actually pointed out the elephant in the room here,
>> that we might never do so?  I can't remember if so.  Maybe HTML5: Galaxy
>> Quest (cf. Captain Taggart's line) just isn't going to happen in the
>> foreseeable future.
>
> There is likely an upper bound set by the maximum possible expiration date
> of any patents applying to any of the viable candidates. It's just that we'd
> like to reach agreement well before then.

Not really, at some point well before then the argument will shift to
a newer clearly superior to H.264 encumbered format. I would expect
that H.264 would spend a period of time as a non-consideration by
almost everyone since it would be inferior to something newer and yet
would still require fees.

You could counter that H.264 and AAC have reached some magic threshold
of adoption or usability that they will not fail to the great
hamster-wheel of encumbered codec upgrades, but since I've never seen
anyone state what those requirements are I'm doubtful.

Regardless—  It's far from clear that simply waiting 15ish years would
resolve the problem, even if anyone found that to be desirable.