3 ms·

Serving videos instead of GIFs is easy to do now with the HTML video element, which is supported almost universally I respectfully disagree. Loading videos in

Serving videos instead of GIFs is easy to do now with the HTML video element, which is supported almost universally I respectfully disagree. Loading videos instead of GIFs is easy to do now. Serving videos is a nightmarish mess of trying to match divergent, incompatible, sometimes patent-encumbered "standards" against an ever-changing range of browser support taking into account the hardware capabilities of a vast range of different devices and the corresponding rendering costs, decoding costs and bandwidth considerations based on incomplete and sometimes contradictory documentation from dozens of different sources that will be out of date by the time you've finished reading this paragraph. One of these is not like the other, and that's why GIFs are still so prevalent.

Ayesh 6y ago
VP8 in a WebM container is pretty much the lowest bar for most browser support, and comes with no licensing requirements. I'm not disagreeing with the comment about "nightmarish mess". It indeed is one, specially when it comes user-uploaded content.
- MrStonedOne 6y ago
  I think they are talking about the webserver side requirements for streaming video so the browser will play it.
- prox 6y ago
  Isn’t it mp4? That is pretty universal and displays well in all platforms. Webm isn’t that ubiquitous in support.
  - zozbot234 6y ago
    Most common MP4 formats are patent encumbered. I guess you could serve DivX;-) format and be in the clear as far as that goes?
  - Ayesh 6y ago
    MPEG LA holids patents for mp2/mp4/hevc/h.264. I'm not sure what the licensing terms are, but they are not as liberal as VP8.
- recrof 6y ago
  unfortunately, mpeg4/h264 is still only common denominator for browser support, because of Apple Safari.
- Silhouette 6y ago
  VP8 in a WebM container is pretty much the lowest bar for most browser support, and comes with no licensing requirements. Unfortunately, even that isn't supported for general video use on Apple devices. It was also never properly supported on IE and support was only recently added to Edge. And that's for a standard that is over a decade old, which is now two codec generations behind the state of the art. Of course it still works to the extent that it's supported by the browsers, but it is quite poor in terms of efficiency and quality compared to the progress made with the later generations. If everyone could just hurry along with hardware and browser support for encoding and decoding AV1, that would be great. However, until I don't need to hire a server farm just to encode a cute little animation in all of the different formats I might need for different visitors, I suspect we'll see animated GIFs sticking around.

Ayesh 6y ago

VP8 in a WebM container is pretty much the lowest bar for most browser support, and comes with no licensing requirements. I'm not disagreeing with the comment about "nightmarish mess". It indeed is one, specially when it comes user-uploaded content.

MrStonedOne 6y ago
I think they are talking about the webserver side requirements for streaming video so the browser will play it.
prox 6y ago
Isn’t it mp4? That is pretty universal and displays well in all platforms. Webm isn’t that ubiquitous in support.
- zozbot234 6y ago
  Most common MP4 formats are patent encumbered. I guess you could serve DivX;-) format and be in the clear as far as that goes?
- Ayesh 6y ago
  MPEG LA holids patents for mp2/mp4/hevc/h.264. I'm not sure what the licensing terms are, but they are not as liberal as VP8.
recrof 6y ago
unfortunately, mpeg4/h264 is still only common denominator for browser support, because of Apple Safari.
Silhouette 6y ago
VP8 in a WebM container is pretty much the lowest bar for most browser support, and comes with no licensing requirements. Unfortunately, even that isn't supported for general video use on Apple devices. It was also never properly supported on IE and support was only recently added to Edge. And that's for a standard that is over a decade old, which is now two codec generations behind the state of the art. Of course it still works to the extent that it's supported by the browsers, but it is quite poor in terms of efficiency and quality compared to the progress made with the later generations. If everyone could just hurry along with hardware and browser support for encoding and decoding AV1, that would be great. However, until I don't need to hire a server farm just to encode a cute little animation in all of the different formats I might need for different visitors, I suspect we'll see animated GIFs sticking around.