On 16 February 2010 15:17, Eric Carlson <[email protected]> wrote: > On Feb 15, 2010, at 11:30 PM, Tim Hutt wrote: >> Anyway, with respect to the actual discussion. My vote is to add two >> optional tags to <video> > > I assume you mean to add these to the <source> element rather than <video>?
Yep. >> : bitrate="800" (in kb/s) and > > If a UA is to use bitrate as a selection criteria, what data should it base > the selection on? Would you have it ping the server where the resource is > located? If so, how much data should it be required to read? It's up the UA. It can ping the server if it wants. If I were writing the UI for firefox, for example I would have it do the following: 1. Display a drop-down of available video formats: "640x480, 400 kpbs", "800x600, 600 kbps", etc. 2. The default choice would be the option that is most similar to the previous value a user selected. There would also be an option in the preferences: "[x] Always use the highest available video quality" where highest is decided by bitrate, then resolution. 3. If the default isn't the highest quality, show a little "Better quality available" tooltip similar to youtube's "Watch in HD". 4. If the video stutters a lot, and there is a lower quality video available, display a (non-modal) message along the lines of "Lower quality video is available, it may work better."
