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