[foms] The State of HTML5 Video

[Jeroen Wijering]

Hello HJ,

> I was a little bit lurking this mailing list but very actively following the discussion since last year.
> The report posted here seems very interesting. While I read through it, I got hit a few questions and comments.
> I’d like to ask your feedback. Any opinion/feedback would be highly appreciated.
> 1>   PC vs. Mobile HTML5 market share : Mobile market share is pretty small in this report. Does this mean almost all mobile browsers are just html4?

The table in this report aggregates desktop and mobile browsers. The small mobile share means people predominantly still visit web pages using desktop browsers. 

In fact, HTML5 is even more valuable on mobile browsers than on desktops. The two mobile platforms that matter (iOS and Android) both support <video>. 

> 2>   Adaptive streaming requirement is now under discussion in W3C web and TV. Minimal requirement goes first. What technology (DASH, MS SS, Apple HLS) will be based is softly touched. As for now, the discussion scope is only requirement level. Actual design/implementation seems to be transferred to HTML5 WG. But HTML5 WG also seems very dormant. -_-; Is WHAT WG more active? What do you think?

Both in WhatWG and in the HTML5 WG, there's little discussion about adaptive streaming. The current focus lies on <track> and FullScreen, which will likely both get done in 2012 (with "done" I mean every major browser having an implementation).

Adaptive streaming may be up next, though I feel like this is better left out of HTML5 - just as the bitstreams of VP8 and H264 are not part of HTML5. Hopefully, more browsers will simply start accepting manifests as a <video> src, just like Safari does. 

Additionally, there's an experiment in Webkit with JavaScript that allows you to build an adaptive streaming client entirely in Javascript:

http://updates.html5rocks.com/2011/11/Stream-video-using-the-MediaSource-API

Kind regards,

Jeroen