Amy Wilson wrote:
Notably absent is any mention of Ogg. Google
leaving Ogg out of the picture here makes sense, because it would be
very easy for them to offer HTML5/h264 videos that play in Chrome and
Safari, while still excluding free formats and users of free browsers
like Firefox and Icecat.
I'm assuming Gnash support would be just as exclusionary? I'm a Chrome
user (it's a hardware thing -- my desktop is too slow to deal with
Firefox and its memory bugs), and by default it's using Gnash for
YouTube playback. I'm sure that Google could enforce ogg video and
audio whilst still using the flash interface, fulling supporting Gnash.
The Adobe Flash users wouldn't even know! \o/
<snip>
I spent some time on the HTML5 public
list - mainly to advocate the inclusion
of Ogg in the specification. This would
have meant that to be compliant,
browsers would need to support Ogg (out
of the box). This would mean
Ogg/Theora/Vorbis could end up like JPG
a standard.
However, there was some FUDD around the
Theora decoder license and it was deemed
too risky. So, now no video format is
specified. H.264 and Ogg are both optional.
However, H.264 is closed source and Ogg
Theora is open source - as I understand
it both H.264 would be problematic for
Firefox (so you would need a plugin
either free or paid for) and Ogg Theora
is problematic for closed source Safari,
IE etc.
Chrome is interesting as it is server
side - but I also it is closed source.
Flash is ofcourse free closed source
software.
Please correct me if I have this wrong -
particularly the closed/open source issue.
Marghanita
PS I haven't had overly positive
feedback on Ogg theora plugin working in
firefox or IE on Windows.
--
Marghanita da Cruz
http://ramin.com.au
Tel: 0414-869202
