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Flash-Free Video in 2016

open.blogs.nytimes.com

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Re: Flash-Free Video in 2016

#151

Post by jack9 »

tensafefrogs wrote: post #28
dplgk wrote: post #23

Has anyone here that is excited about HTML5 video (and Flash being dead) ever written an enterprise video player? It's a total nightmare in HTML5. You have little control over playback and insight into video events. Meeting business requirements (that Flash fulfilled) with HTML5 video ranges from hard to not possible.

I'd recommend one of the open source players, like video.js[1]. Unless you are doing some really advanced things it should cover your needs. [1] http://videojs.com/

It's terribly primitive and altogether broken from some features (unfinished). Just an fyi

Re: Flash-Free Video in 2016

#152

Post by jdc »

BatFastard wrote: post #149
Pxtl wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only that, but the GPU exposure to HTML5 creates a massive stability and security risk. Flash failed not just because it was a browser plug-in, but also because it was terrible - Adobe no longer knew how to tame the beast they'd created and the result was terrible performance and bad user-experience. I'm sad a more sane platform for game/video content didn't win. The browser doesn't need to do everything . HTML5…

Disagree, Adobe's problem was they made it too easy to create crappy content which could give the browser bad performance. And by make it too easy to deploy that bad content to the web. Now that the majority of bad flash developers are gone, and it's being used less for ads and more for mobile, maybe it can make a come back.

What do you think Adobe should have done to hinder people from creating (or perhaps publishing) low quality content?

Re: Flash-Free Video in 2016

#153

Post by akoumjian »

serge2k wrote: post #114
akoumjian wrote: post #97

It should be noted that the native browser decoders for h264 still produce worse color presentation than flash players. Also, the flash runtime's pseudo-streaming is faster than Chrome's http pseudo-streaming (it takes longer for the same h264 file to start playing back). I love HTML5 video, but there are still huge areas for improvement that show up frequently.

> native browser decoders for h264 still produce worse color presentation than flash players which browsers? Which platforms?

Last I checked Chrome's h264 had less accurate color presentation than most off the shelf flash decoders. I can't seem to recall how Firefox's webm decoding stood up when the file was comparatively accurate to the h264 the flash player was using.

Re: Flash-Free Video in 2016

#154

Post by eldod »

flavioribeiro wrote: post #139
jmstickney wrote: post #5

If they still serve video via Brightcove, seems like a big win for the Zencoder acquisition, which included the video.js player. I do see video.js in the source.

there's no Brightcove neither videojs, VHS was built from scratch and we have plans to open source it.

Brightcove is following the lead though, they just released the HTML5 first HLS player: https://blog.brightcove.com/en/2016/02/say-goodbye-flash-bri...

Re: Flash-Free Video in 2016

#156

Post by cyborgx7 »

sparky_z wrote: post #71
0_00_0 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? There are extensions for blocking autoplay HTML5 media same as flash...

They don't work reliably (some things still autoplay), and sometimes they break the media entirely or don't discriminate between things you actually want to autoplay. For example, the one I currently have installed also blocks "gifv" files from autoplaying in the browser, even though there's no play button to click on. Every time I click on a reddit link that turns out to be a gifv file on imgur, it stays frozen on t…

There is actually no such thing as a gifv "file format". gifv is just a html page with an embedded webm or mp4 file that hides the standard controls and loops automatically.

Re: Flash-Free Video in 2016

#158

Post by bobajeff »

j2bax wrote: post #115

I was at a primarily Flash based company during the glory days of Flash and then through the transition to HTML5/JS. While I understand perfectly (and even support) why the shift happened (thanks Steve!), its still frustrating sometimes to know that now, years later we still aren't able to provide the quality of games that we were in Flash 3-4 years ago. We can do a lot, and things have come a ways, but right before…

I agree that HTML5 can't do 3D stuff very well across the board yet. But if we're honest here niether could Flash.

I remember trying Flashes Unreal demo and though it ran it was barely playable.

Most of the games I've played in Flash could definitely be done in HTML5 using the 2D Canvas.

Re: Flash-Free Video in 2016

#159

Post by eldod »

teen wrote: post #119
eldod wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today playing a video more complex than just decode a .mp4 file: most broadcasters use Adaptive Bitrate streaming formats like HLS and MPEG-DASH, that add a lot of complexity: How do you get the qualities and languages list? how and when do you switch the video quality? etc In case of hls.js used by the NYT, you actually need to transmux the mpeg-ts content used in HLS into fMP4 to make it playable by the Media Sourc…

yea, the transmuxing is unfortunately buggy though. i had to recently switch my site back to flash because so many browsers have issues with it. it loads way faster though

HLS.js is doing great on Chrome, FF, Edge and Opera. For Safari it's better to use the native HLS player for now. The best option is to have HLS.js first on compatible latest browsers and Flashls as a fallback on older ones

Re: Flash-Free Video in 2016

#160

Post by eldod »

akoumjian wrote: post #97

It should be noted that the native browser decoders for h264 still produce worse color presentation than flash players. Also, the flash runtime's pseudo-streaming is faster than Chrome's http pseudo-streaming (it takes longer for the same h264 file to start playing back). I love HTML5 video, but there are still huge areas for improvement that show up frequently.

Pseudo-streaming is (and should be) less and less used, and actually loads a lot slower than the new HTTP adaptive streaming formats like HLS and DASH.
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