YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#211

Post by notdan » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 1:50 AM UTC

DigitalSea wrote: post #125

The HTML5 player is fantastic and I have been using it for as long as I can remember (since it became an option). My favourite feature is the playback speed controls, when trying to learn a song on guitar, I can follow along with the live performance or tutorial to learn how to play, absolutely invaluable. Every day the number of reasons to keep Flash installed gets lower and lower. I still keep it installed on my ma…

Since you are using youtube to learn songs on guitar, you might try this out (I made it):

http://tunetranscriber.com

Let's you do marks and loops as well as using the playback controls.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#212

Post by serf » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 1:52 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.

about in video in academia, ever.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#213

Post by giovannibajo1 » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 1:53 AM UTC

pornel wrote: post #191

chambo622 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Where do you cut the line? It's a plugin because it uses the plugin api? And were it integrated in the main binary, would you call it a "plugin-less proprietary HTML extension"? I think the main differentiation point is that it's made by the browser authors, shipped with the browser, updated with the browser. That, to me, means that it's not a "plugin", even though it uses the plugin interface; it's an implementation detail.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#214

Post by gatehouse » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 2:05 AM UTC

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #184

jsprogrammer wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I remember the days where they talked about making video cameras that would actually stop recording if they were pointed at a piece of media with special markers in it. Nowadays people would use some kind of HDCP-breaking digital capture device, and regulating all video cameras is basically impossible with their ubiquity, but it's crazy to think about video cameras being modified against our will to suit the needs of…

It isn't all that crazy, it has already been done to printers:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/229647/counterfeit_money_on_c...

https://www.eff.org/issues/printers

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#215

Post by mc808 » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 2:06 AM UTC

smacktoward wrote: post #100

hrasyid wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=RNWK+Interactive#symbol=R...

Yes, Virginia, as hard as it may be to believe today, once upon a time RealNetworks was a very big deal. For a real spit-take, though, put one of the companies that we think of today as Very Big Deals next to it for comparison. Like, say, comparing Apple's performance to RealNetworks' over the decade from 1997 to 2007: https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=0&chdd=0&chds=0&chdv=0&... (I omit the last few years because…

I thought you had posted broken links because it was just showing a little chart for RNWK. Then I noticed:

"For the ubercool interactive charts, you need to install the Adobe Flash Player"

Just seemed a bit ironic, given the topic.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#216

Post by pippy » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 2:07 AM UTC

schoen wrote: post #114

shutupalready wrote: post #65

What joy it is to finally uninstall Flash. The last time I was this happy to uninstall crappy software was when I realized that I no longer needed RealPlayer. For those that don't know it, RealPlayer was a very popular proprietary media player (with its own proprietary formats) circa 2000. The company's stock was worth $380 a share in 2000; it's now worth $6. The only explanation for RealPlayer's popularity was its D…

Unfortunately (though it's considerably more compartmentalized and constrained than prior iterations), Google is trying to replace Flash with a DRM mechanism that also requires proprietary software. So while you might think that the advent of HTML5 video means you no longer need proprietary software to interoperate with the services that use it, Google and its partners are working to ensure that that's not true.

If you're referring to Encrypted Media Extensions it's not a DRM mechanism that requires proprietary software. It's a specification for a communication channel between a browser and Digital Rights Management agent software on the local machine. While it's not ideal, it's just some javascript functions that interact with the DRM on the computer. The DRM software itself is completely optional.

It's much better than having plugins that do the same thing (if you use firefox you're used to Flash asking for trial Norton to be installed every time a security exploit is found in Flash). In the perfect world we wouldn't need it, but it leaves no excuse for media companies not to use HTML5.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#217

Post by JetSpiegel » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 2:08 AM UTC

adwf wrote: post #208

bla2 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If the source code is not available and it's distributed as a binary, by definition it can't be open source. (Plus some might argue about OSS licensing too) Chromium may be OSS, but Chrome is not.

Yes. Chrome is not Chromium, nor it Opera.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#218

Post by click170 » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 2:11 AM UTC

vertex-four wrote: post #182

jsprogrammer wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would users switch to this as yet non-existent proprietary DRM mechanism when free and open source solutions already exist and are widely used?

Because I want to watch Netflix or whatever else requires it, and that's a value calculation I've made?

Still seems like a false dichotomy to me. Subscribe to Netflix and pirate your content if you have a firm believe in being DRM free while rewarding the creators of content you consume.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#219

Post by click170 » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 2:20 AM UTC

munificent wrote: post #166

mhb wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the community using instead of iTunes?

YouTube, Spotify, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Pandora, et. al.

Those just aren't sufficient IMO.

I like being able to listen to music when I have no internet connection.

I like being able to listen to something when the original was taken down.

I like being able to listen to something that the vendor no longer offers.

I like having smart playlists in my library and on my devices that automatically update themselves based on meta data such as what I've played recently.

Unfortunately I like being able to use my music program on an operating system of my choosing as well, and am looking for an iTunes replacement. But then replacement can't be worse than the original. That's a deal breaker.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#220

Post by JohnTHaller » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 2:21 AM UTC

yuhong wrote: post #200

JohnTHaller wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It did years ago, but hasn't in a while. Since then, Apple Update would pre-select to install Quicktime and Safari when you updated iTunes unless you purposely unchecked them each time.