Ok before delving into the subject, Tom can you put it on 
ideas.welcomebackstage.com. Its very much the right place to post this type of 
thing.

I think its significantly different to this,
http://ideas.welcomebackstage.com/ideatorrent/idea/6/ 

It also helps to have something more structured when presentation ideas to 
others.

So support for HTML5's video tag generally sounds good to me. Yes it will upset 
those with IE browsers but I'm sure someone will come up with some 
JavaScript/DOM hack which will replace the Video tag with object in the near 
future.

Ogg Theora support in the BBC? Well (cough!) 
http://welcomebackstage.com/2009/06/rdtv-episode-2/
Will we see it elsewhere like iplayer? I don't know but I would say unlikely 
for now. In the same way we didn't support Ogg streaming outside of 
research/dev project. I expect Mpeg4 h.264 will be dominate for a while to come.

I personally think if the Xiph foundation can sort out the metadata problem, 
they will have something very interesting indeed.

Cheers,

Ian Forrester

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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-backst...@lists.bbc.co.uk [mailto:owner-backst...@lists.bbc.co.uk] 
On Behalf Of Tom Fitzhenry
Sent: 18 June 2009 01:48
To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk
Subject: [backstage] Ogg Theora/Vorbis and HTML5

Hey guys,

Are there any plans on supporting HTML 5's <video> tag for iPlayer?

I realise there are rights issues with some programmes and that rights holders 
might have problems with non-DRM solutions, but presumably there are some 
programmes which the BBC have full rights to.

Supporting the <video> tag raises the question of which codec to use, which is 
difficult to answer because there is no codec that every vaguely popular 
browser (IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome) supports or plans to support in 
the near future.

IE has been silent so far (though there are DirectShow filters for Ogg 
Theora/Vorbis.[0]).
Firefox 3.5 will support Ogg Theora/Vorbis (and cannot support H.264/AAC 
because of patent issues).[1] Safari will support H.264/AAC (Ogg Theora/Vorbis 
plugins for Quicktime exist[2]).[3] Opera will support Ogg Theora/Vorbis (I 
don't know if they plan to purchase licenses for its users.)[4] Chrome will 
support Ogg Theora/Vorbis and H.264/AAC.[5]

I think users of alternative browsers (Firefox, Opera, Chrome), rather than 
non-alternative browsers would most appreciate <video> to Flash.
Also, H.264/AAC cannot be supported in browsers without huge financial backing 
(because of patent issues), where as Ogg Theora/Vorbis is believed to be 
patent-free.

As such, to benefit most people, I think using Ogg Theora/Vorbis would be the 
best choice.

Regards,
Tom Fitzhenry

PS. I don't know if this is the right place to post this. I couldn't find a 
better place though.

0. http://www.xiph.org/dshow/
1. https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Using_audio_and_video_in_Firefox
2. http://xiph.org/quicktime/
3. http://webkit.org/blog/140/html5-media-support/
4. http://labs.opera.com/news/2008/11/25/
5. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10250958-2.html
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