+1 for deprecation of VP6 and clearing the way to open sourcing of JFXMedia.
On a related note, you will soon need to support H.265/HEVC. HEVC apparently also supports an alpha channel, so it may also address that concern. (See http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.265-201504-I/en) All of this might be much easier to handle if JDK-8091063 is addressed (the open sourcing of JFXMedia may assist with this). https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8091063 The brilliant guy that filed that issue nearly seven years ago was on to something :-) Then legacy formats could be provided in optional downloads and new formats can be supported without the need to integrate them within the JRE code. Regards, Scott > On Aug 26, 2015, at 2:53 PM, David DeHaven <david.deha...@oracle.com> wrote: > > > I am proposing we deprecate support for the VP6 video encoding format and the > FXM/FLV file format in JFXMedia for Java 9. The current intention is to > completely remove support for these components in the Java 10 timeframe. Note > that this is only deprecation, Java 9 will still support playback of VP6 > video in FXM or FLV containers. > > The reasons in favor of deprecation: > - Use of VP6 on the web has lost favor, it was superseded fairly quickly by > H.264/AVC in Flash 9 and Adobe generally recommends using H.264/AVC over it. > It's not even recommended for compatibility as as their "Sorenson Spark" > H.263 variant has a much longer history in Flash. > - Tools for generating VP6 are non-trivial, even Adobe products no longer > support generating VP6 content out of the box, you have to install add-ons. > While there are free tools, none are particularly elegant or easy to use, or > produce sub-optimal results. We've heard no end of complaints from the > community about the lack of tools for VP6, so it seems a logical decision to > migrate away from it. > - We have had (many) requests to add external codec support, if (that's a big > IF, please do NOT take this as any sort of promise or even the hope of a > promise!) we were to implement such a feature and if you absolutely had to > rely on VP6 then you would be able to provide one yourself. > - The vp6 codec is the LAST closed source component in media, once removed > JFXMedia will be 100% open source. I think we can all agree this is a good > thing and something I personally look forward to achieving. > > > The one and only reason I can think of for NOT deprecating VP6: > - It is currently the only format (supported by JFXMedia) which supports an > alpha channel, though I have had thoughts on how to address that in a way > that would allow the use of practically any media format. > > > While compelling for some use cases, it is a very niche use case and thus > cannot outweigh the benefits. So, this is a call out to any who may be using > VP6, please speak up now so we can discuss it or forever hold your peace. > > > For reference, the list of supported formats in JFXMedia are in the JavaDoc > for javafx.scene.Media: > https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/javafx/api/javafx/scene/media/package-summary.html#SupportedMediaTypes > > -DrD- >
