On 10-Dec-2009, at 13:25, Lindsley Brett-ABL001 wrote:
> > Thanks for the comments. There is also another option at > http://martin.atkins.me.uk/specs/atommedia > > It is a simple problem - an Atom entry could be routed between several > different device types. It would be a problem if a handset attempted to > play an HD video, but there is no way to know the media format. If the > media format was part of the link, the end device would immediately know > if it could decode the media. Arguably that should be part of the type attribute, and it’s worth noting that HTML5 incorporates a certain degree of support for this by supporting adding a codecs parameter to video/ MIME types. e.g.: video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2" video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis" This certainly goes part of the way, though it obviously doesn’t include lots of information which can only be gleaned by reading the metadata contained within the resource itself (frame rate, bitrate, progressive vs. interlacing, inband subtitling presence, etc., etc.), and some which can only be determined by a human (genre, content advisories, and so forth). The scope of metadata for multimedia content is huge (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/programmes/2009-09-07.shtml for example). I’d love to see a situation where it could all be easily expressed within the context of an Atom document in an agreed interoperable way, but it’s a bit of a can of worms, to say the least. M.
