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 - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
