[theora] Opera proposed Theora for native video playback in browsers

[Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves]

Oops, I lied.  It wasn't Anne who wrote this message
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:jZ-p4QeuDIwJ:listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2006-October/007545.html+http://listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2006-October/007545.html&hl=pt-BR&ct=clnk&cd=1
but s/he agrees with it.

The only thing worth mentioning from there:
"It isn't just the network effects of installed base (lack thereof)
that are holding Theora back. Theora is not technically as advanced
as H.264 or WMV9 (or even H.263 apparently). In general, a Theora-
encoded video requires more CPU power for decompression than a
comparable video encoded using a codec encumbered by the MPEG-LA
portfolio. Also, to achieve similar subjective quality, you need more
bits with Theora than with recent codecs encumbered by the MPEG-LA
portfolio. According to Chris DiBona, the bandwidth issue is why
Theora is not good enough for Google Video. Also, he said that Google
does pay MPEG-LA, so I guess Google has figured that paying MPEG-LA
costs less than the additional bandwidth required by Theora (plus the
installed base issues)."

That's life for you.  Considering Theora development has pretty much
stalled, I wonder if it wouldn't be better if we gave the format to
ISO and let them further improve it.  We'll see if the Theora camp
will get more interest after Vorbis gets proper Ambisonics support.
Backwards compatibility with non-Ambisonic Vorbis software seems to be
the big problem right now.  Or so I understand.  I wish I had a degree
as an audio engineer to help things get done, but I don't.

-Ivo