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Hardware-Accelerated Ogg Theora For Firefox Mobile
An anonymous reader writes "Matthew Gregan is working on bringing David Schleef's DSP accelerated port of Theora to Firefox Mobile. He writes on his blog: 'The C64x+ DSP is often found in systems built upon TI's OMAP3 SoC, such as the Palm Pre, Motorola Droid, and Nokia N900. Last year, Mozilla funded a port, named Leonora, of Xiph's Theora video codec to the TI C64x+ DSP. David Schleef conducted the port impressively quickly and published his results. The intention of this project was to provide a high-quality set of royalty-free media codecs for a common mobile computing platform. The initial focus is Firefox Mobile on the N900, so I am working on integrating David's work into Firefox. To experiment with other facilities Firefox could use to accelerate video playback, and test integration, I've been hacking on a branch of a stand-alone Ogg Theora and Vorbis player originally written by Chris Double called plogg.'"
Just... let it die. I know free/open is awesome, but Theora is just bad bad bad on top of awesome. If you refuse to look towards H.264, then at least now you can look towards Google and VP8 now. Bury Theora.
Firefox isn't FREE software. Both the name and icon are closed source. If you modify, recompile, and redistribute your own version of the firefox code, you need to give it a different name and a different icon (cf Ice Weasel, Ice Cat).
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Except from what I have seen HTML V5 sucks ass? No offense but it does. I can play full screen SD H.264 flash on this 1.8GHz Sempron that I use as a netbox perfectly. It don't skip, or jerk, everything "just works". If I want to spend a whole $70 and add a AMD 4xxx AGP card I can do full screen 1080p on this same PC, no problem. The last time HTML V5 came up everyone was providing links to HTML V5 sites, so I tried them....yuck. Most had it in a little tiny window and even then it was a slideshow.
As far as licenses go I just don't see how they could need a license to use whatever codec the user has already. I mean I kinda doubt that all those free MP3 players have licenses for the MP3 codec, do they? If the user doesn't have a codec a simple like to KLite Codec Pack (for Windows) or VLC (on OSX or Linux) would solve the problem without forcing FF to carry a license, wouldn't it? And then we could give the users the choice. Those that wanted to remain RMS style "free" simply didn't have to use it, the rest of us would have nice hardware accelerated FF without hassle.
So I'm sorry, but until they can get HTML V5 or Theora to play as smooth and easy as H.264 on low power devices like my Sempron I'll pass. I'd say TFA was a step in the right direction, but in a way it ain't. They should have went for the "Big Three"...AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and gotten hardware acceleration on them FIRST. Since AMD and Intel have open specs it should be easier than Nvidia, and once two out of the three were on board Nvidia would have produced one just to have the "us too!" bullet point. Then millions of motherboards and discrete GPUs could come with Theora hardware acceleration out of the box, like they do with H.264 now. And it DOES make a BIG difference, believe me, as a PC builder and repairman I've seen firsthand. Video plays smoother, less chance of stuttering or dropped frames, better multitasking, it just makes the users experience much better, especially with the lower end machines which are VERY popular these days.
While I wish Theora and HTML V5 the best of luck, unless they get hardware acceleration like yesterday I have a feeling the ship has done sailed. The only real chance IMHO of open video taking off would be now open VP8 codec which if it has made the gains shown in previous versions could be an H.264 killer. If whatever container they use plays as well as VP6 in a flash container we've got a winner here. But considering the frankly incredible mish mash of differing hardware when it comes to mobile it would probably have been better to get the desktops/laptops/nettops on board first, and hopefully get enough momentum going that the hardware manufacturers would jump in and help with Theora support on cells and other mobile devices.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
APK,
I remember once discussing with you on actual things. You know I'm a Opera user and think FF sucks. No, I am not clone53421. I've also seen your mindless threads and how you have trolled a single article for the past 6 years.
You need to get help.
Why do you paste this list of where your software have been included at? Sure, good for you and I'm happy for you. But it doesn't back your claims one bit. I'm quite certain many of us here on slashdot have an awesome (in a nerdy way) history. If you want to expand that outside nerdy stuff, I'm quite sure it's even more awesome. Random fact: When I was 14 I slided down a snowy hill, saw a girl I liked and my friend told me to go for it and hug her. We dated for the next 3 years. But what does that have to do with the conversation?
I'm all up for a good debate (do you see how I love it here on slashdot?), but you make no good arguments by assaulting people or telling them they are someone else like you did with me and clone53421. You also do not win anything by claiming you "won" or "beat" someone, or by having multiple personalities and posting under them backing up each other - while by the style of text it's clear it's you.
Make an account, start providing some real information, debating or talk and discuss about real things.
You initially assaulted me about Firefox. Just so you know, like you, I am an Opera user.