YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#241

Post by barclay » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 4:16 AM UTC

guelo wrote: post #115

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…

RealPlayer was the coolest thing I'd ever seen when it came out in the mid 90s. It was the first streaming music player, as far as I know. Of course they later became corrupted by the advertising dark side, like every other internet company. But they were cool for a time. This was also before everyone decided that the browser would be the only internet platform.

Yup. I remember in 97(?) when I was able to be an early adopter of @home (before the excite merger), listening to "music on the internet" with realplayer on my PowerMac 7100.

It was positively mind blowing.

Almost equivalent to seeing 240x180 video playing on a CD-ROM.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#242

Post by schoen » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 4:20 AM UTC

pippy wrote: post #216

schoen wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 hav…

I agree that HTML5 is much better than Flash in every way, so in this sense I'd just like to encourage our community to continue applying pressure at all levels and in all channels to ensure that Encrypted Media Extensions doesn't continue to be a part of HTML5 standards, UAs, or websites.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#243

Post by logn » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 4:29 AM UTC

mhb wrote: post #124

koyote wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh my god I completely forgot about RealPlayer. Luckily there was an alternative, Real Alternative, that enabled you to play the content without having to install that ghastly RealPlayer. It seems like the community always finds a way around crappy software.

What's the community using instead of iTunes?

Tomahawk on linux is the best I've found.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#244

Post by shade23 » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 4:35 AM UTC

from the same post,what about this I found in the comments? https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=234779

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#245

Post by vel0city » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 4:35 AM UTC

guelo wrote: post #115

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…

RealPlayer was the coolest thing I'd ever seen when it came out in the mid 90s. It was the first streaming music player, as far as I know. Of course they later became corrupted by the advertising dark side, like every other internet company. But they were cool for a time. This was also before everyone decided that the browser would be the only internet platform.

Not only was it an awesome streaming client, I found it to be pretty sweet client for ripping/burning CDs at that time. It was sad to see it fall, but once Winamp got a bit more polished I never looked back.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#246

Post by Retra » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 4:37 AM UTC

anigbrowl wrote: post #202

jsprogrammer wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's not practical for video in most cases - dedicated pirates will find a way around it, but casual consumers won't bother. Duplicating HD or better video by analog means without significant quality sacrifices is much easier said than done.

Yeah, until the video recorder on your cell phone gets a little nicer.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#247

Post by ucaetano » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 4:44 AM UTC

abdias wrote: post #235

pippy wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 hav…

True, it was approved by W3C and Tim Berners-Lee a while back ( http://www.infoworld.com/article/2612478/html5/berners-lee-a... ), and was criticized - understandably so. For instance: If someone do research for educational or critical purposes, they have the right to use copyrighted material under "Fair Use" (US, UK and other countries have similar rules). With DRM this would essentially block this right (if used on…

"Right to use" != "right to have it provided to you in an easy-to-copy way".

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#248

Post by codefylabs » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 4:44 AM UTC

Good.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#249

Post by calebegg » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 4:46 AM UTC

SCdF wrote: post #88

Next up (I hope): Twitch. Then I think I'm done with that extension.

Twitch streams in HTML5 for me on Safari, if Flash isn't installed. No comments, though.

Re: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

#250

Post by yohui » Wed, Jan 28, 2015, 4:56 AM UTC

schoen wrote: post #242

pippy wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 hav…

I agree that HTML5 is much better than Flash in every way, so in this sense I'd just like to encourage our community to continue applying pressure at all levels and in all channels to ensure that Encrypted Media Extensions doesn't continue to be a part of HTML5 standards, UAs, or websites.

> I'd just like to encourage our community to continue applying pressure at all levels and in all channels to ensure that Encrypted Media Extensions doesn't continue to be a part of HTML5 standards

Which just means content owners will continue to use proprietary plugins or push unstandardized extensions.

Pressure should be applied to the root of the issue (copyright holders' desire for DRM), not the symptom.