HTML5 is here, baby!

As you'd know, if you've been to the site recently, we have a new video player (again!) And it's in pure HTML5! No plug-ins, no slow Flash loading, no Flash in general. This is exciting news, not only because you can view our website on the iPad, but because it works natively with your browser, meaning it loads faster and runs smoother. There is one drawback, however, but it's only pertaining to Firefox users: OGG. Let me just say that this is quite possibly the worst codec I've had the displeasure of using. It's barely supported and hard to find encoders/decoders for. And, much to my luck, is the only codec Firefox can use for HTML5 videos. Safari and Chrome can use the (dare I say it) better h.264 codec, which makes it super easy for me on my Mac. Some people will argue that Mozilla's choice was for the best because it's an open-source codec and has no license or royalty fees, and for that they are correct, but what the choice has left us with is a far inferior and little-known codec. What is the point I'm trying to make with this? Simple. Most of our videos converted to OGG Theora just fine. All but one: Speedy. I'm not sure of the reason behind this, but I've taken most of the day to try and figure it out to no avail, so I've given up. This is no reason to fret, however, for all of our videos are up and running in amazing quality on YouTube. That and Mozilla is working a new codec into Firefox: WebM. Most of you probably haven't heard of it, but that's okay, you will in due time. For now, though, until the horrible OGG situation is fixed, we'll have to wait. Hopefully that time is soon. Until then, here's looking at you, kid...



-Overlord T.J.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

UPDATE 2/19/10

A MAJOR update has taken place on the OP site, even though nothing seems changed. It has, believe me. I have made two significant changes that should be addressed. Firstly: our video player has changed. This was done in an act to try and speed up our content delivery, for as all two of you know, our videos sometimes loaded incredibly slow. Well, that has changed for the better. We are now using the Bittorrent DNA-enabled player. This means that the player harnesses the speed and power of peer-to-peer technology and standard web streaming to bring you our videos significantly faster. However, this added speed (ironically enough) will only be available to Windows users, which most of the people, besides me, who visit the site use. The only thing you have to do to benefit from this wondrous advancement is install a small plug-in to your browser once. You can, of course, opt to not, but as I've illustrated you WILL NOT see an improvement in speed if you don't.

Anyways, enough of that chatter. The second, more minor update that I did to the site was replace the film "Esc". I went back to the drawing board and completely re-edited the whole thing. I did this because, no matter how much I loved the original edit, I felt it needed some more polish. So I did this and, unlike previously where I would have multiple versions of the same film up, I decided to just outright replace the old with the new. I feel it is now the film it was meant to be and I want you all to see it!

Well, figuring all this out has sure got me tired, so I'm gonna go and pass out in my nice warm bed. Yours truly signing out.


Overlord T.J.