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Why is a film focused website still using gifs for displaying sequences? Video on the web is a solved problem and it's better then gif in every possible way, es

by mdoms 6y ago

Why is a film focused website still using gifs for displaying sequences? Video on the web is a solved problem and it's better then gif in every possible way, especially for full color full motion live action.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
zwlee90 6y ago
i'm glad it uses a gif. it's straight to the point, it plays in a loop, you can't control the playback, cant pause it, cant seek forward, cant tell how long it lasts. if it used a video, its likely the developer of the site would be encouraged to add: a beginning countdown timer before the clip played (video will start in 3, 2, 1, .. you arent sure if the clip has audio or not so you hit Pause and never see the clip), a distracting progress bar showing how long the clip lasts, messing up the anticipation for not knowing when the clip ends, killing all suspense.. and finally, about 1 second before the video is over, a little popup that shows Whats Playing Next, and a countdown timer starts playing for the next clip. This is best case scenario.. worst would be a 2 minute ad before the video starts. video on the web isn't a 'solved problem'. What if I want to play a video that uses indexed color? No video codec I know of supports that. Can I trust that the video I just encoded in h264 with ffmpeg will play on the web, or, or do I need to test first to see if it will play? Will it work on all browsers? Is my codec listed on https://cconcolato.github.io/media-mime-support/ https://cconcolato.github.io/media-mime-support/ ? and on and on. the simplicity of a gif makes perfect sense here.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- mdoms 6y ago
  > it's straight to the point, it plays in a loop, you can't control the playback, cant pause it, cant seek forward, cant tell how long it lasts All of this can be achieved with video.
  - c22 6y ago
    This site worked great with javascript disabled. It was a refreshing experience in 2020 when many completely static images on sites all over the web refuse to display at all or show up only as a blurry mess.
allenu 6y ago
For what it’s worth, there is an embedded video at the top of the page that I assume is the full clip, but when I clicked it, it just showed a loading spinner. When I scrolled down I was pleasantly surprised to find gifs (that worked) accompanying the text.

by mdoms 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

zwlee90 6y ago

i'm glad it uses a gif. it's straight to the point, it plays in a loop, you can't control the playback, cant pause it, cant seek forward, cant tell how long it lasts. if it used a video, its likely the developer of the site would be encouraged to add: a beginning countdown timer before the clip played (video will start in 3, 2, 1, .. you arent sure if the clip has audio or not so you hit Pause and never see the clip), a distracting progress bar showing how long the clip lasts, messing up the anticipation for not knowing when the clip ends, killing all suspense.. and finally, about 1 second before the video is over, a little popup that shows Whats Playing Next, and a countdown timer starts playing for the next clip. This is best case scenario.. worst would be a 2 minute ad before the video starts. video on the web isn't a 'solved problem'. What if I want to play a video that uses indexed color? No video codec I know of supports that. Can I trust that the video I just encoded in h264 with ffmpeg will play on the web, or, or do I need to test first to see if it will play? Will it work on all browsers? Is my codec listed on https://cconcolato.github.io/media-mime-support/ https://cconcolato.github.io/media-mime-support/ ? and on and on. the simplicity of a gif makes perfect sense here.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
mdoms 6y ago
> it's straight to the point, it plays in a loop, you can't control the playback, cant pause it, cant seek forward, cant tell how long it lasts All of this can be achieved with video.
- c22 6y ago
  This site worked great with javascript disabled. It was a refreshing experience in 2020 when many completely static images on sites all over the web refuse to display at all or show up only as a blurry mess.

allenu 6y ago

For what it’s worth, there is an embedded video at the top of the page that I assume is the full clip, but when I clicked it, it just showed a loading spinner. When I scrolled down I was pleasantly surprised to find gifs (that worked) accompanying the text.