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YouTube Hints At Support For Free/Open Formats With HTML5

shadowmage13 writes "After the recent post about YouTube, so many votes were put in for HTML5 using Free and Open formats that Google has already cleared them all out (to make space for others) and issued an official response (requires Google login): 'We've heard a lot of feedback around supporting HTML5 and are working hard to meet your request, so stay tuned. We'll be following up when we have more information. We're answering this idea now because there are so many similar HTML5 ideas and we want to give other ideas a chance to be seen.' Now all the top ideas are concerning copyright and DMCA abuse."

11 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Well then... by nametaken · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What's a more polite way to say, "be more like Vimeo"?

    1. Re:Well then... by geckipede · · Score: 4, Informative

      I would prefer "be less like vimeo" because the only difference between them that affects me is that the youtube player decodes video efficiently enough that my processor can handle it, and vimeo is a browser locking slideshow.

    2. Re:Well then... by Hal_Porter · · Score: 5, Funny

      What's a more polite way to say, "be more like Vimeo"?

      Please be more like Vimeo

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  2. Re:is html5 going to provide faster better video? by BikeHelmet · · Score: 4, Informative

    Video tags are easier to accelerate. They can be handled by just about anything. That means rather than being locked to Flash, it can be played with Xine/GStreamer on Linux, Quicktime on OSX, DirectShow on Windows, DSP codecs on your phone, etc.; it might also be possible to use VLC on any platform, although that defeats the "accelerate" part.

    And of course, you've always got Flash as a fallback.

    P.S. Posted before, but this might be of interest to someone: Javascript-free HTML5/Flash video embedding, which works on desktops as well as devices like the iPhone: http://camendesign.com/code/video_for_everybody

  3. Can we dump flash now? by Djupblue · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Youtube is pretty much the only reason I need Flash. If it was possible to watch Youtube videos without plugins it would be great. No more choppiness or Flash using 100% CPU. Playing some videos from internet shouldn't be rocket surgery so this is really about time. Flash seems almost purposefully bad on Linux.

    1. Re:Can we dump flash now? by icebraining · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you use Firefox, have you tried some greasemonkey script that replace the Flash player with an embedded version? Like http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/46219

  4. Re:is html5 going to provide faster better video? by Randle_Revar · · Score: 4, Informative

    VLC generally supports acceleration when os/driver/card support exists

  5. Re:is html5 going to provide faster better video? by beelsebob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Faster at all 3 if we use h264 because:
    Hardware h264 encoders exist, and I bet google would use them – it would cut their power use massively
    Hardware h264 decoders are common on just about all graphics cards
    h264 can compress a video much more for a given quality than the current flash video they use

    Not faster at all if we use ogg theora because:
    Hardware Ogg encoders don't exist
    Hardware Ogg decoders don't exist
    Ogg barely uses less bandwidth than flash video for a given bandwidth

  6. Re:is html5 going to provide faster better video? by moreati · · Score: 5, Informative

    First, do you have a citation for this 'massive' reduction in power?

    Langen, Germany, October 30, 2008 - Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe (FME) today expanded its line-up of H.264*1 CODECs with two new devices that encode and decode full high-definition (HD) (1920 dots x 1080 lines) Video in H.264 format. The first of the two products to be launched, the ultra-low power MB86H55, features power consumption of only 500mW during full HD encoding including the built-in memory, an industry-leading level for low power consumption. In addition, the upcoming MB86H56 will offer processing of full HD video at 60 frames-per-second (progressive) '60p'*2, to improve picture quality even further.

    -- http://embedded-computing.com/fujitsu-full-h-264-codecs

    That's half a Watt encoding HD, a general purpose CPU would be consuming tens, or even a hundred watts to do that.

  7. Re:is html5 going to provide faster better video? by True+Grit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    H264 is an open standard

    A standard that requires shelling out $$ for a license to use it isn't 'open', not by most people's definition of 'open'.

    en/decoders might be covered by patents.

    There should be no 'might' in that sentence. Patents on h264 is the reason for MPEG-LA's very existence. They hold more patents on it than you can shake a stick at.

    That mountain of patents and the control it gives its owners is *precisely* the problem with h264.

  8. How about "Could you please ban gaming videos?" by tepples · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's a more polite way to say, "be more like Vimeo"?

    How about "I know a lot of people who, to put it mildly, aren't a fan of video games. Can you make subtle changes to your policy so that videos of video games end up all but banned?"

    Background: Vimeo bans use of its service for commercial purposes; this rules out any video uploaded by the video game's publisher. Vimeo also rejects videos uploaded by anyone other than the author; this rules out videos of game play uploaded by anyone other than the video game's publisher because they're "derivative works".