I've been exploring this question in some depth now, talking both to the Miro team (which is building a free, cross-codec player) and blip.tv. It seems things are not as simple as this would make it seem.

First, Richard earlier urged me to make sure I was converting to Theora with the original video, to make sure the quality was good. But the problem with quality on Theora is not related to the source. It is related to the poor quality of the Theora codec. That is one reason many aren't using it.

A second, more significant to the free world, is that many in the community believe that Theora is in fact patent incumbered; that the owners of the patent are simply waiting till it becomes a standard before they pounce. This is slowing the spread of the codec.

Third, for Theora to work in the way Flash is, people would be using a Java Theora player, which itself is extremely buggy. That makes deploying it in an environment like blip.tv difficult.

Fourth, blip.tv is in principle eager to facilitate transcoding to the theora codec. But the last time they checked, only 10-15% of the files were transcoding properly using the existing free software that supports it. Were that software better, I'm sure they would at least enable automatic conversion of everything to Theora. And were the Java player better, they'd be able to enable that as the default for playback.

In light of this, it seems to me it would be useful for there to be a conversation facilitated between the Free Software community, and Blip.tv/Theora/Miro. For in my view, the real long term solution here is that free software enable the same crucially important (to freedom) functionality that is now being enabled by non-free software and codecs. Miro has all but given up on free codecs just now -- focusing on free players instead. And while Blip.tv would love to make it part of their core, the quality is just not there. Some constructive encouragement from the leader of the free software community might well induce the right kind of development here. I'm of course not such a leader, but I'd be happy to connect Richard or whomever to the people at blip.tv and Miro to initiate that conversation.


On Feb 28, 2008, at 9:30 AM, Lee Braiden wrote:

On Wednesday 27 February 2008 16:07:38 Richard Stallman wrote:
Links to the mpeg4 and Theora files are immediately below the flash
   version. they both immediately download the file.

How about putting the Theora version first?
That is the way to show you are really in favor of it.


This was my thinking too. If one format has advantages for users, and others have disadvantages or is associated with an old or ill-conceived way of doing things, I think it's only right that the better format should be promoted, and the lesser formats should be demoted to a "backwards compatibility" or "legacy" page. And I think that'd be nice terminology to use too, to
convey the message to the average user clearly.


--
Lee

-----
Lessig
Stanford Law School
559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA  94305-8610
650.736.0999 (vx)
650.723.8440 (fx)

Ass't: Elaine Adolfo <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>



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