[whatwg] What is not possible with HTML5

[Bruce de Graaf]

3D Video and Real-time Multi-format Video! Ooops... My "bad." It doesn't 
seem feasible even outside of HTML!

Apologies for being facetious and trying to be a "wag," but that latter 
point (multi-format video) is a good candidate for attention ... and 
that is what the query (What is not possible with HTML5) is about, 
right? "To what have we failed to pay due consideration?"

A Statement of the Problem (apologies aforehand for offensive terminology):
Real-time, multi-format video (there must be a better term for this) is 
the acquisition of audio and video in one form (say, 1920 x 1080 with 
7.1 sound) and its propagation in native as well as other formats (say, 
160 x 112 with monaural sound). This is the "Fat Man's Trousers" problem 
- How do you stuff that belly into such small pants? [and THAT is the 
most polite of the various titles] Right now, with either H.264 or with 
Ogg, no matter which, this task is Sysiphean. Simply put, it is the 
difficulty in cramming 8+ Mb/s through a 300 kb/s pipe (to a display 
that cannot present, anyway, the high resolution image) and then 
randomly "adjusting" the bandwidth. Think of being in a car, watching an 
iPad (as a passenger, we hope and pray) and trying to watch a video as 
the feed wobbles from several megabits to mere kilobits per second and 
back again. ...and then being foolish enough to recommend the video to 
an iPhone user...

Just recode ... on-the-fly? Oh, you have not begun to address the 
problems! You see, when your feed collapses, your clients lose 
compression synchronization: compressed audio and video that depend on a 
particular client state must be halted until some form of re-atunment 
occurs ... possibly several seconds (hopefully not minutes). ...not good 
in a commercial environment (somebody's not getting that for which 
he/she is paying...).

There have been related discussions (focused on reporting actual 
bandwidth) on this forum about the challenges. Some have said, with good 
reason, that it is outside of the HTML5 envelope. Yet, the current need 
is so great and that need's growth is of such magnitude (it could reach, 
quickly, the major portion of all traffic) as to warrant some cycles in 
its discussion.

...and, not to complicate and confuse matters, deserving of attention is 
an analogous problem with mere layout of HTML pages: view a commercial 
page (say, Bloomberg or Der Spiegel) on a decently sized screen and then 
try to view such pages on an iPhone or Droid ... not a pleasant 
experience. Whilst not dynamic as the described media feed problem is, 
the difficulties are analogous (again, even if "spatial rather than 
temporal"). If the documentation could offer some guidance, it would be 
well received and yield great returns.

What say ye?
===
On 2010-06-07 10:01, Nikita Eelen wrote:
> I believe video telephony is not possible due to security limitations 
> in browser, but it was in spec but never acted upon as of yet (IE 
> device access
> using something like a microphone/camera etc.), however i believe this 
> is possible to work around (with individual browser extensions, like 
> firefox extensions, or
> a native plugin (flash comes to mind but sucks for mobile devices in 
> terms of battery life), so I think for all those as of now need to be 
> written as either
> A.) An application that acts as a plugin (ex: Flash)
> B.) An extension to a browser (Firefox extension/active x control etc.)
> C.) A native application that reads the camera/microphone for a given 
> device when the above is not possible (Ex: iPhone/iPad),
> if this is possible any other ways I would be very interested if 
> anyone could comment,
> Thanks,
> Nikita
>
> On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 5:34 AM, narendra sisodiya 
> <narendra at narendrasisodiya.com <mailto:narendra at narendrasisodiya.com>> 
> wrote:
>
>     May someone explore what is not possible with HTML5 in spec and in
>     Implementations
>
>     For example video telephony in browser is possible ? we draft DAP
>     spec but no implementations. So not possible at this moment.
>
>
>
>     -- 
>     ┌─────────────────────────┐
>     │    Narendra Sisodiya
>     │ http://narendrasisodiya.com
>     └─────────────────────────┘
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Nikita Eelen
> Network Manager
>
> AVE INTERVISION LLC
> 6 4 0 West State Street
> Alliance, Ohio 4 4 6 0 1
>
> Office: 330-821-7117  ext. 108
> Cell: 330-257-9647
> email: neelen at amvonet.com <mailto:neelen at amvonet.com>

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