[whatwg] Limiting the amount of downloaded but not watched video

[Silvia Pfeiffer]

On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 10:15 PM, Boris Zbarsky <bzbarsky at mit.edu> wrote:
> On 1/17/11 4:05 PM, Silvia Pfeiffer wrote:
>>
>> Assuming a browser is able to play back video in realtime, i.e. their
>> CPU and download bandwidth are sufficient to download video data at or
>> above the speed it is required in to provide continuous playback
>
> ... and that both conditions will continue for the duration of the video's
> playback.
>
> Right?
>
> Determining whether this condition holds either making some assumptions that
> may or may not be true or having some magical future-predicting technology.
>
> If nothing else, I'm thinking things like "I would like to buffer up this
> 3-hour-long-video so I can watch it on the plane, where my network bandwidth
> will be precisely 0".  Definitely as use case I've had.

Yes, I agree. Maybe though - since this is definitely a use case for
"special users" - this could be on a right-click menu as an option:
"download full media resource and save for later playback" or
something similar. This is indeed a user need scenario, which goes
against the minimum bandwidth waste aim of content providers. But it
is the special use case, not the norm IMHO.

Cheers,
Silvia.