Having heard no objections and gaining internal approval, we'll move forward 
with this plan.

-DrD-

> On Aug 26, 2015, at 11:53 AM, 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 - Use of VP6 on the web has lost favor, it was superseded fairly quickly by 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-
> 

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