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YouTube Offers Experimental Opt-In HTML5 Video

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the step-in-the-right-direction dept.

bonch writes "YouTube is now offering the experimental option to view all YouTube videos using HTML5 in H.264 format. Supported browsers are Chrome, Safari, and the ChromeFrame plug-in for Internet Explorer. Captions, ads, and annotations aren't yet supported but are coming soon."

11 of 265 comments (clear)

  1. Should be a selling feature... by Orne · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Captions, ads, and annotations aren't yet supported but are coming soon.

    The three most annoying features of YouTube won't display? Where do I sign?

    1. Re:Should be a selling feature... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, you could sign into an account on YouTube and turn them off.

    2. Re:Should be a selling feature... by slim · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Good to see Firefox not opting into a system that pushes us towards a non-free de-facto standard.

      We don't want to sleep walk into a situation where anyone who wants to encode video that they expect to be widely usable, must pay for a non-free license.

      True, Firefox walks a fine line, because it could lose market share, in which case it will all be in vain. We need ubiquitous, cheap chipsets that support Theora - or something else free. That won't happen if everyone just rolls over and pays for H.264.

    3. Re:Should be a selling feature... by Yvan256 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And if they don't want to mess around with the licensing terms, just embed VLC player and be done with it. Firefox not supporting H.264 helps Flash Video to survive.

      If Firefox doesn't care that Flash can play H.264 videos then they shouldn't care that VLC can play H.264 videos.

    4. Re:Should be a selling feature... by nine-times · · Score: 5, Informative

      Part of the problem is that h264 licensing fees are generally hidden. You don't pay for a license, your hardware/software vendor does. Apple and Microsoft and Google all buy the licenses for you and include them in their products. It's hard to convey the importance of the licenses for non-free codecs if they seem to be free.

    5. Re:Should be a selling feature... by mblase · · Score: 5, Funny

      Some of us are deaf, and would much rather Youtube caption their videos. You don't HAVE to watch it. That's why it's called CLOSED CAPTIONING. Don't like it? TURN IT OFF.

      Just because you're hard-of-hearing doesn't mean you have to shout all the time.

  2. Re:Hmm by BhaKi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Firefox supports the video tag. The h.264 support can be added by installing mplayer browser plugin or xine browser plugin.

    --
    The largest prime factor of my UID is 263267.
  3. No. Firefox is Ogg/Theora + Vorbis only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    No. Firefox video tag is free formats only. Tools like mplayer are a cesspool of security holes— they aren't designed to be exposed to hostile content. The video tag requires pretty deep browser integration, ... only apple supports using the native infrastructure and even they disable 99% of their features for security reasons (e.g. try a mov with hyperlinks in it).

    Mozilla is committed to an open web, and you can't get their with a wink and a nod and asking users to install codec software which is illegal everywhere in the developed world. (Including europe. I'm so tired of seeing people characterized codec licensing as a US thing— there are more European patents on codecs than US patents)

  4. Works great in my side by side comparison by jschen · · Score: 5, Informative

    Using Safari/OSX (latest version of each) on a first generation Core2 Duo laptop (2.33 GHz), I tried watching the same video (containing no ads, annotations, etc) at the same size using both the default Flash option and the beta HTML5 option. CPU use was a steady 33-34% during playback in Flash. A steady 12-13% in HTML5. Seems like a winner to me.

  5. Re:What about firefox (ogg video)? by Yvan256 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I didn't say that Theora needs triple storage capacity. I said that Google would need to triple their storage capacity, the first 100% being taken by H.264 files (obviously).

    As for that page you linked to, look at the screenshots. There's nothing subjective about them, H.264 is the clear winner. If you can't see that then you need to calibrate your monitor. Same bandwidth = lower quality results using Theora.

  6. Re:What about firefox (ogg video)? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Being a codec snob is trendy.

    The reality of it is much less exciting.

    Youtube already supports several versions of the files, they could probably drop the flash 7 compatibility in exchange for Theora. In terms of numbers of client Ogg/Theora for firefox is probably a better deal than flash 7. Adding one more to a half dozen isn't a tripling.