[whatwg] More YouTube response

[Shane Fagan]

On Mon, 2010-07-05 at 17:45 +0200, Nils Dagsson Moskopp wrote:
> John Harding <jharding at google.com> schrieb am Thu, 1 Jul 2010 15:59:37
> -0700:
> 
> > 1. Standard Video Format
> > […]
> > On the current path, a content provider knows
> > that by offering H.264 and WebM, they can reach all HTML5-capable
> > browsers.  This honestly is a reasonable state for YouTube right now
> > - we use H.264 in cases outside the <video> tag as well, but it would
> > be nice to converge on a single baseline format at some point in the
> > future.
> 
> Practically, I think the ball is / was in Apple's court to decide this.
> While to this day other browser makers have decided to ship two (!)
> royalty-free video formats (Theora and VP8), Apple is the single H.264
> holdout, and they have a tight itegration to their hardware as well.
> 
> Sadly, I do not have hope for any consolidation regarding video
> formats. And while Youtube may be fine with having to provide only two
> formats instead of a dozen, for the common smaller webmaster this is a
> significant task, as transcoding resources are limited.
> 
> Recently, I have been discussing <video> implementation with the
> administrator of an imageboard. It was ultimately decided to not add
> this feature, precisely because of the multitude of video formats of
> which none can be played in every modern browser. It's a shame.

If I remember correctly and dont ask me for a link to where I read it
but the problem is still patent suits I believe. MPEG-LA as soon as they
heard about the VP8 codec open sourcing they said they were getting a
patent pool together to challenge its adoption anywhere. Although I
believe that there is nothing to worry about because Google has a huge
patent pool to fight back with. 

I think this issue is still a huge sticking point for everyone and I
dont see a resolution other than to let everyone use whats comfortable
and see what sticks. Its a waiting game im afraid but as for adding webm
to the HTML5 spec I still dont think we can add it at this stage IMHO.

As for Apple not picking it up you would have to ask someone at Apple.
Id say its still the threat from MPEG-LA's patent pool that still hasnt
attacked Theora like it said it would a few years back so it seems like
an empty threat to me. 

--fagan