Falling back to another method of displaying media is possible without a dedicated media API. In this particular case, you can have a video element with an ogg source and an object running Cortado to display it. What other purpose would such an API serve? Chris
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tim Starling Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 4:39 PM To: 'WHATWG List' Subject: Re: [whatwg] Scripted querying of <video> capabilities Kristof Zelechovski wrote: > Why do we need an API to test UA media capabilities? What purpose would > such an API serve except for displaying the media to the user - a task which > can already be achieved without a dedicated API? > It is useful for websites that wish to use a new or unpopular format (such as Ogg Theora). If the client does not support the format in question using <video>, it can fall back to another method. I am employed to work on just such a website (Wikipedia). I maintain a Java applet called Cortado that can be used to play Theora/Vorbis videos, and I wrote an extension for MediaWiki called OggHandler which uses JavaScript and an extensive series of client-side fallbacks (including Cortado and <video>) to display Theora/Vorbis files to the user.