YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#191

Post by pornel » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 12:50 AM UTC

chambo622 wrote: post #95

pornel wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "HTML5" support requires proprietary binary blob that has no standard API (besides an API to launch it with opaque data from a proprietary server) and is licensed only to selected companies. Basically it's as much HTML5 as was HTML4. It's supported only by DRM vendors: Google (WideVine), Safari (FairPlay) and Microsoft (PlayReady) and doesn't work in open-source browsers (not even in Chromium or custom WebKit bui…

Netflix works fine in Chrome on Linux. What do you mean by "licensed only to selected companies?"

Works, because Google is a DRM vendor (WideVine).

You can't make a web browser that plays Netflix without signing contract with one of the DRM vendors that Netflix supports, or rolling your own DRM and convincing Netflix (and distributors that pull their strings) to adopt it.

For example if you compile Chromium from source it won't work (at best Netflix will send you encrypted blobs that you won't know how to decrypt and there is no public spec for it anywhere).

From video publisher's perspective it's locked-up as well. To have your own video DRM-protected with the same tech as Netflix you'd have to get a license from Google (for Chrome WideVine DRM support), Apple (for Safari FairPlay) and Microsoft (for IE PlayReady DRM).

Netflix's playback without "without plugins" is achieved not by removing plugins and having open standards, but merely by convincing browser vendors to bundle closed DRM code with their browsers. Technically it's more like Chrome shipping bundled Flash, but fortunately nobody calls that a "HTML5 native Flash without plugins!"

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#192

Post by jfb » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 12:51 AM UTC

delsalk wrote: post #179

jfb wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason I kept Chrome around is because I occasionally wanted to watch Youtube videos that were Flash only. I wasn't going to install Flash system-wide, so I was grateful for Google's approach of maintaining a private Flash instance. Now, that usecase is become less of a problem, so I can ditch Chrome, which I never used otherwise.

>I occasionally wanted to watch Youtube videos that were Flash only Are there any examples of flash only video? I used to use a 3rd party extension that would show videos in html5 and i never came accross any video that required me to load it in flash. I'm curious how Youtube tries to deliver those videos now.

There used to be many. I haven't encountered one in a while, however.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#193

Post by dzhiurgis » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 12:53 AM UTC

_frog wrote: post #92

[deleted] wrote: post #89

[deleted]

Are you talking about the thing where going fullscreen places the video in a new virtual desktop? Because if that's the case I vastly prefer that behaviour. It makes it much easier to jump back and forth between watching a fullscreen video and reading content in other browser tabs.

No.

I am talking about thing that you zoom into YouTube video and it shrinks.

Virtual desktop feature is nice, although not related.

By the way, I was talking about YouTube being broken, not Safari. Haven't seen such behaviour with any other HTML5 player other than YouTube.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#194

Post by keyle » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 1:01 AM UTC

digikata wrote: post #177

NeutronBoy wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube and Twitch are the only reasons I keep Chrome around - I much rather supporting the work that Mozilla are doing with Firefox (ie a proper open source browser) than Chrome.

I'm finding that Chrome hit sort of a decline from a personal peak in that current versions seem to be pigs on resource constrained systems, and has started to move backwards in terms of UI friendlyness (e.g. frequent requests for login to google accounts, rollout of more difficult user profile switching). IIRC the integrated flash plugin in Chrome is proprietary and at times it seems to be at the root of hanging pro…

I've recently switched to Opera. It's ludicrous in my mind because it's Opera and I'm an older guy... history... but now it's webkit and it's essentially a polished version of webkit without the guest crapware of chrome. It has ublock too.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#195

Post by username223 » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 1:03 AM UTC

lukifer wrote: post #183

maaku wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's crappy about iTunes?

Speaking from personal experience on Yosemite: slow UI, constant beachballs and stutters (despite lots of RAM and no platter drives), paint/refresh bugs while scrolling, 100% CPU usage to play tracks (without FX/EQ), years of mission-creep, and a general conceptual mess since version 12, with its multiplicity of modes and sub-modes. As an iTunes apologist and power-user since 1.0 (my huge library admittedly is not he…

> paint/refresh bugs while scrolling,

Good to know I'm not the only one. I've become used to scrubbing the pointer up and down over the list of podcasts until the part I'm looking at is legible, and plugging my iPod in twice to get it to show up. But IMO iTunes is actually one of the less-bad recent Apple software screw-ups. At least it doesn't have enormous memory leaks, like Safari and Keynote, which regularly beachball my poor laptop with "only" 4GB of RAM long enough to go make a cup of coffee.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#196

Post by schoen » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 1:04 AM UTC

jsprogrammer wrote: post #169

mark-r wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there will come a day when something they want to watch desperately will require it.

That day will never come[1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole

I think you might be confusing whether the DRM will be effective at stopping copying with whether many users will adopt DRM-restricted tools and platforms.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#197

Post by spyder » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 1:14 AM UTC

deeviant wrote: post #84

nailer wrote: post #2

Excellent. It's always been weird having a mobile device run YouTube more responsively than an GBP1500 laptop because the latter had to run the Flash plugin.

I've had a pretty poor experience with HTML 5 video. It stutters far more than flash and in particular it does very weird things when I try to skip around in videos. I'll miss flash.

Yes, one of my friend has an old computer and I had to install a "force flash on Youtube" extension for him to make the videos stutter less.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#198

Post by bla2 » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 1:19 AM UTC

JetSpiegel wrote: post #171

bla2 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What key part is closed-source on Windows/Linux?

Everything. It's only distributed as a binary.

What does this reply even mean? Of course it's distributed as a binary -- should regular users compile it themselves?

Advanced users can compile chromium if they want; from what I understand it's virtually identical to the chrome binary.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#199

Post by spyder » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 1:20 AM UTC

Grazester wrote: post #27

HTML 5 videos on youtube take forever to start for me and would just stay at a buffering screen when I use the seekbar. This is in Chrome. I haven't tried another browser but it has made my youtube experience terrible compared to what is use to be with Flash.

It maybe related to the bug that's linked in the blog post's comments too: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=234779

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#200

Post by yuhong » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 1:24 AM UTC

JohnTHaller wrote: post #154

maaku wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's crappy about iTunes?

On Windows it's incredibly bloated and has really bad UI design. Apple always used to trick people into installing Safari and Quicktime bundleware-style during updates as well. (Source: Every computer I've maintained over the years and asked the owner 'why did you install Safari' and the answer is always 'I guess iTunes did it')

I believe iTunes formerly required QuickTime.