HTML5 <audio> and <video>

[FreezeWarp]

HTML is constantly evolving, and the latest iteration, 5, features many abilities that will help sites like Youtube greatly. Among of these are the new <video> and <audio> tags, which allow the browser to display video and audio without any Flash codecs installed.

Many people have become requesting HTML5 support as Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome implement the standard. Although Internet Explorer currently lacks support, many web developers have started to take advantage of this as a way to ease their flash coding nightmare.

There is, however, a major caveat right now, and that is that there is no way to support both Safari and Firefox, as one requires the Ogg Theora codec, and the other requires the H.264 codec. These are noticeably associated with the patent free, but lesser known, .ogg and .ogm file types, and the patented, but more common .mp3 and .mp4 file types.

As a web developer, or as a consumer, have you been wanting to implement or see support for these formats implemented across the web? Wikipedia, for instance, already displays audio and video this way by default.


Personally, I love the formats, and Flash, being a major memory cow, is far inferior to plain HTML <video> and <audio> for what is relatively simple task.

[piexing]

I think Ogg should be used for this because it's patent-free, but there will always be opposition. I use Firefox and Google Chrome, which are the two browsers I'd recommend to anyone, but unfortunately not everyone uses Firefox or Google Chrome, so there's no clear way for everyone to be satisfied; Internet Explorer isn't known for its compliance with web standards, and Apple opposes the use of Ogg as a standard. No matter what, the <video> and <audio> tags are much more convenient and efficient, and I'd like to see them universally accepted.

[FreezeWarp]

Originally Posted by piexing

I think Ogg should be used for this because it's patent-free, but there will always be opposition. I use Firefox and Google Chrome, which are the two browsers I'd recommend to anyone, but unfortunately not everyone uses Firefox or Google Chrome, so there's no clear way for everyone to be satisfied; Internet Explorer isn't known for its compliance with web standards, and Apple opposes the use of Ogg as a standard. No matter what, the <video> and <audio> tags are much more convenient and efficient, and I'd like to see them universally accepted.

I personally like the idea of the audio/video tags being used like the img tag for all sorta of file types, but there would of course be legal concerns then, especially in Linux. Anything that is without patents (or only has patents in order to protect itself) is always the better choice on the web.

I'm just glad that Google Chrome, my browser of choice, choose to support both. The bottom line is definitely as you said; the tags being universally accepted is what really is important.

[KingOfKYA]

Honestly i like the idea but realistically it will never catch on unless. Certain record-labels and movie-publishes. They need to define a reasonable fair use policy and drop the endless drm battle. So as long as drm lives video and audio tags will not work because you will need drm codecs. Although theres something to say about this changing considering the Google OS android and chrome.
Related:
image to big for img tag so:
http://kneale.us/Download_Disobedien...28Comic%29.png

[FreezeWarp]

Originally Posted by KingOfKYA

Honestly i like the idea but realistically it will never catch on unless. Certain record-labels and movie-publishes. They need to define a reasonable fair use policy and drop the endless drm battle. So as long as drm lives video and audio tags will not work because you will need drm codecs.

Not necessarily, but obviously they do have a level of power.

Originally Posted by KingOfKYA

Although theres something to say about this changing considering the Google OS android and chrome.

Not sure Chrome is as good an example as say Firefox or VLC/GStreamer, but true just the same.

Originally Posted by KingOfKYA

Related:
image to big for img tag so:
http://kneale.us/Download_Disobedien...28Comic%29.png

Love it. And true.

[KingOfKYA]

good news youtube is offering html5 video

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/01..._downloadsquad

[§ethi Xzon]

Flash was definitally not made for video. However, 10.1 supports hardware acceleration via the GPU so it's a bit faster with my GTX 260 Core 216.