Firefox Picture-in-Picture • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox Picture-in-Picture

#41

Post by fulafel » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 4:52 PM UTC

slipheen wrote: post #29

fulafel wrote: post #24

This is normally a window manager feature, why put it in browser where it's limited to browser tabs?

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about browser tabs. This pops the video outside of the browser's chrome, so you can drag it wherever you want. They implemented it in Firefox because Firefox is the one detecting and playing the video? MacOS already has a similar feature, but AFAIK it only works in Safari.

I mean it's limited to content managed by the browser, whereas the native WM way works for all apps.

Re: Firefox Picture-in-Picture

#42

Post by philliphaydon » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 4:55 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #36

bentcorner wrote: post #8

PiP is such a great feature. I have no idea how easy/hard it was to implement but it feels nice to use. It does exactly what you'd expect it to do and nothing more. I use it while watching overwatch league games in the browser because it allows me to resize the popped-out video arbitrarily, instead of the site's embedded youtube player options of either tiny-window-in-browser or full-screen sizes (there is no theater…

It is a little clunky and could use a good deal of polish. For example, you can only PiP one video, and controls remain in the tab with the video frame. PiP only gives you play/pause, no scrubbing or anything from the embedded player. The always on top is a feature for some, but can be a hindrance, too. That behavior should be a toggle for the user so they can use their tools how they like.

I wish I could get subtitle support on Netflix. Their app doesn't allow you to resize when its as always on top. PiP allows me to position it where and how I want, but lacks subtitles :(

Re: Firefox Picture-in-Picture

#43

Post by phkahler » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 4:56 PM UTC

This should be more of a desktop feature. I'd like to play video wallpaper on gnome/wayland for example. I think this is as much on the desktop devs as the browser devs, if not moreso.

Re: Firefox Picture-in-Picture

#44

Post by Andrew_nenakhov » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 4:57 PM UTC

sylens wrote: post #33

This seems like a massive feature that I can't believe hasn't been baked into Chrome yet. I know Safari has an implementation but it always feels limited and of course cannot be used on Windows or Linux. I need to put this through its paces, but it may vault Firefox back into the role of my default browser.

While it is truly a nice feature, it is hardly the main reason why should anyone concerned with the future of the web use Firefox as default browser.

Re: Firefox Picture-in-Picture

#45

Post by slipheen » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 4:59 PM UTC

fulafel wrote: post #41

slipheen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about browser tabs. This pops the video outside of the browser's chrome, so you can drag it wherever you want. They implemented it in Firefox because Firefox is the one detecting and playing the video? MacOS already has a similar feature, but AFAIK it only works in Safari.

I mean it's limited to content managed by the browser, whereas the native WM way works for all apps.

I guess I don't know enough about how WMs work. :(

I'm curious how the WM could detect that the a portion of a window is playing video, and break that out into it's own movable window?

I'm not sure how you do that without the browser managing that.

Re: Firefox Picture-in-Picture

#46

Post by 51Cards » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 5:01 PM UTC

I use this feature on a daily basis, in fact it's running right now. I have a few UI issues with it, the resize border is much too hard to hit, it would be nice to be able to click the video to pause, and I would like to see a progress bar and mute buttons. That said it has already been a "game changer" for how I view video every day.

Re: Firefox Picture-in-Picture

#47

Post by asdff » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 5:02 PM UTC

philliphaydon wrote: post #42

asdff wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a little clunky and could use a good deal of polish. For example, you can only PiP one video, and controls remain in the tab with the video frame. PiP only gives you play/pause, no scrubbing or anything from the embedded player. The always on top is a feature for some, but can be a hindrance, too. That behavior should be a toggle for the user so they can use their tools how they like.

I wish I could get subtitle support on Netflix. Their app doesn't allow you to resize when its as always on top. PiP allows me to position it where and how I want, but lacks subtitles :(

IIRC there was a firefox extention that popped out anything into a browser window with a simple header. You'd have a quarter inch of header, but it would be like a poor mans PiP and you'd end up with more controls at your disposal than the native firefox solution.

Re: Firefox Picture-in-Picture

#48

Post by phkahler » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 5:03 PM UTC

fulafel wrote: post #41

slipheen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about browser tabs. This pops the video outside of the browser's chrome, so you can drag it wherever you want. They implemented it in Firefox because Firefox is the one detecting and playing the video? MacOS already has a similar feature, but AFAIK it only works in Safari.

I mean it's limited to content managed by the browser, whereas the native WM way works for all apps.

Right. It should send the stream to the system video player. If you then want no window decorations or whatever you go to the video player app developers.

Re: Firefox Picture-in-Picture

#49

Post by WmyEE0UsWAwC2i » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 5:03 PM UTC

WmyEE0UsWAwC2i wrote: post #30

This is a nice feature. > play alongside while you go about your business on > other tabs or do things outside of Firefox. Do we need to watch video while we go about our business? You better finish your business or the video. Which leaves me thinking: this is kind of bloat.

And this is why HN should't have implemented angry-vote.

Re: Firefox Picture-in-Picture

#50

Post by input_sh » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 5:06 PM UTC

dhritzkiv wrote: post #17

classics2 wrote: post #16

YouTube charges for this “feature”. How will that go over?

They do? As in, paying will expose a control on their player to enter PiP in supported platforms? Note: other than FF, you can also trigger PiP (edit: on Safari) on a YouTube video by double-right-clicking on the video element OR long pressing on the speaker icon on the tab/address bar.

YouTube app on Android supported this some time ago. If you were playing a video and then wanted to go to some other app, a small floating window appeared with that video playing.

It was then locked away behind YouTube Premium, and now YouTube (non-premium) occasionally bugs you to pay for the premium when you try switching to another app so that you can continue playback.