[whatwg] need a way to set output format from StreamRecorder

[Nils Dagsson Moskopp]

Kevin Marks <kevinmarks at gmail.com> schrieb am Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:23:00
-0800:

> To be fair to Safari it supports far more audio formats than other
> browsers,

Yes, but it supports *other* formats than other browsers. That's the
crux of the issue. To creators of multimedia files and web developers
alike, having to provide even two formats is a nuisance.

> as it incorporates QuickTime's engine, which was designed
> to cope with multiple audio, video and file formats via well designed
> abstractions, and the Component Manager, which has lasted since the
> late 1980s itself (first public release of QuickTime was 1991, but
> the codebase goes back pre-1990).

While the achievements of quicktime engineers may certainly be
impressive, they are entirely irrelevant to the issue at hand. In a
territory where we need a least common denominator there are no
bragging rights for “the most supported formats” (especially, when the
only one every other reasonably modern browser can play isn't among all
those).

> Yes, MP3 is the de facto standard, and somehow Mozilla and Webkit
> Android still won't play them. (Bizarrely, Webkit Android 'supports' HTML5
> <audio> without supporting any codecs or file formats at all).

AFAIK, there are patent assertions over MP3. So, while a technical
implementation may be a relatively simple task, licensing issues
may present an insurmountable obstacle to implementors not able to pay
the fees. (I really thought this was common knowledge by now.)

> Supporting playback of uncompressed audio (and uLaw, aLaw, PCM)
> in .au .aif .wav and .mov should be trivial, and not encumbered by
> any patents. Picking one to record in by default should be something
> we could agree on - which is most widely supported at the moment? WAV?

Enjoy your saturation of bandwith. While WAV may be interesting for
local audio manipulation and okay for small sound effects, it isn't a
suitable network interchange format.

-- 
Nils Dagsson Moskopp // erlehmann
<http://dieweltistgarnichtso.net>