The crux of the problem seems to be where we encode the information "this video should loop". We did it before in surrounding HTML structure. The proposal is t

The crux of the problem seems to be where we encode the information "this video should loop". We did it before in surrounding HTML structure. The proposal is to now do it different, slightly shorter, surrounding HTML structure. As far as I can see, there's no fundamental difference, just syntax sugar and a battleground reset. How do we get the video to loop when viewed directly? When set as the background? When saved as a file? These are use cases that .gif satisfies and videos don't, or only awkwardly and inconsistently. Also note that content is inherently suited or unsuited to looping. It's rarely useful to play a normal video on a loop, or a video meant to loop just once. All this points to one solution: a new file extension that means "a video meant to be played in a loop". The format of the file need not be any different from a video. Maybe ".mp4l", ".webml", etc.