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Ogg codecs dropped from HTML5

Ogg codecs dropped from HTML5

Posted Jul 7, 2009 7:20 UTC (Tue) by njs (subscriber, #40338)
In reply to: Ogg codecs dropped from HTML5 by iabervon
Parent article: Ogg codecs dropped from HTML5

> If there's anyone who could effectively push open standards in this area, it's the people who do the "Acid" browser tests.

Ian Hickson, the HTML5 editor and author of the email you're posting on, is from the (co-)author of Acid2 and Acid3.

I hope Apple comes around, but whatever it is they're trying to achieve by avoiding Theora (legal risk? something strategic?), they may well consider that more important than Acid4 compliance. And if Apple makes some loud and vaguely plausible argument about how Acid4 is so unfair -- they can't possibly comply -- and ignores it, then that runs the risk of making *the Acid tests* irrelevant, not Apple.

HTML5 has a similar problem -- it attempts to make a practically relevant standard (which job the W3C has completely abdicated), but that means that it can't just go around declaring reality to be other than it is. One can see this logic in the email -- it's being dropped from the spec because putting it in the spec wouldn't make a difference either way.

I think Jon's summary is overly pessimistic. This announcement doesn't change anything. The strategy for forcing Apple to bundle Theora was always to create web developer by shipping it in Firefox, and legal confidence by shipping it in Chrome.


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Ogg codecs dropped from HTML5

Posted Jul 7, 2009 15:59 UTC (Tue) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link]

It's appropriate for HTML5 to try to be something that people will implement (and, if it's successful, this will be something that the W3C unfortunately never managed). But the Acid tests are intentionally designed to be wishful thinking, rather than reflecting reality. They test a bunch of features chosen to be things that web designers would like to be able to get consistent results out of and currently cannot. And they provide a way for web designers to look at the things that they'd like to use, and compare this against what browsers currently support, so that they can decide how to cope with reality.

The best solution is probably to test, first, that the <video> tag is handled and the browser will, if offered H.263 and Theora, pick one it supports; then to test that, if only offered a single file, it will be able to use it. Of course, there's the question of whether web designers wish everyone could handle Theora or whether web designers wish everyone could handle H.263. I personally wish Theora was what web designers would prefer, but I don't know if that'll be true. I expect the actual answer is that some designers want each.


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