Comments on: For anyone who thinks HTML5 will simplify things

By: scott

scott — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:45:21 +0000

I suspect that Google has the motivation and resources required to resolve the video format issue. They recently acquired On2 Technologies for their encoding and compression technologies. I don’t think anyone would be surprised if they donated these for use with HTML5 with no strings attached. I find it hard to believe that they would offer up a free mobile OS and browser-based desktop OS without resolving the video tag issue. Integrating the video tag with the latest JavaScript VMs, SVG-based animations & interactivity, and the emerging WebGL 3D standard will finally provide a platform for new types of video applications that a purely presentation-based technology like Flash will find hard to compete with. Adobe’s AIR is a resource hog. It’s failure will clearly demonstrate why the video tag is the right solution for the needs of publishers.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:41:15 +0000

I would like to point out that there is not one agreed upon image format for the web but the fact that .jpg, .png, .bmp, etc are all supported with the image tag doesn’t take away from the usefulness of not having to have a separate plug-in for each kind of image format.

All that needs to happen is web browsers will need to support H.264 video as well as .oog playback without a plug-in. I’m sure there will still be room for Flash video as well as Silverlight, but if using the video tag is more convenient it will slowly replace the use of plug-ins over time.

It is annoying there is not one standard, but not the end of the world (or the usefulness of HTML5). It would be VERY unique if companies with such different goals could agree on one standard of ANYTHING.

By: John Foliot

John Foliot — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:01:48 +0000

Jonathan,

There is one more problem with the tag: it currently does not specify how to include captions. With the recent introduction of H3101 on Capitol Hill, this might very quickly deliver yet another crippling blow to what should be a good idea. I’ve written more about this on my site: http://john.foliot.ca and I invite readers to find out more.

Thanks for the great article.