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Can you declare a video as looping, and have that correctly honored everywhere it plays? That has always Just Worked with GIFs, but the last time I checked (a

Can you declare a video as looping, and have that correctly honored everywhere it plays? That has always Just Worked with GIFs, but the last time I checked (a couple of years ago) it basically never worked with any “proper” video format.

dragontamer 5y ago
Most of gfycat's traffic these days is .mp4 files that pretend to be gifs. Even if you upload a gif, its converted into .mp4 because its a far more efficient transmission codec. I'm sure there's some javascript / backend logic that handles some corner cases. But... yeah. A lot of self-looping .mp4 stuff seems to be solved. The <video> tag has been getting more and more consistent these days. I just do some hobby stuff though. I only test on the stuff close to me (chrome, edge, firefox, my phone). So I can't say too much about reliability on older / more obscure platforms.
- FalconSensei 5y ago
  Twitter does the same, and I (along with other people) hate it. I mean... nice that it saves data, but I can't save it. To download an image is SO simple, but have to rely on 3rd party services to convert the video back to gif if I want to post it as gif on twitter later, or send as gif on whatsapp.
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    I know enough about the debugging terminals in Chrome and Firefox to just "save-as" the .mp4 file itself. So I personally haven't had any problems with saving or sharing .mp4s. (Most commonly: grabbing some animated .mp4 meme and copy/pasting it into Discord) But yes: its weird that Chrome / Firefox don't have easy-to-use "save as" buttons on .mp4s. But just grab the .mp4 and share the .mp4 on whatever services you use. Increasingly, it seems like .mp4 is becoming the new gif. Its not quite as user friendly yet, but there's all sorts of advantages compared to .gif.
    - FalconSensei 5y ago
      > I know enough about the debugging terminals in Chrome and Firefox to just "save-as" the .mp4 file itself. Right, so this just don't work for like 90% of the population, or when you are on mobile, right? Edit: what I mentioned about saving the mp4 and having problem later is: if I save the video and then try to re-share it on Twitter, it will be shared as a video, and not as a gif - or at least that was the case last time I tried
niutech 5y ago
Yes, just use <video autoplay loop muted playsinline>
- FalconSensei 5y ago
  That's when you are posting a video on your own website. If you are posting a gif on a comments section of a website, or uploading to tumblr, for example, you don't have this control
  - niutech 5y ago
    That's the failure of Tumblr or any website that it doesn't optimize huge uploads by converting it to sane formats.

dragontamer 5y ago

Most of gfycat's traffic these days is .mp4 files that pretend to be gifs. Even if you upload a gif, its converted into .mp4 because its a far more efficient transmission codec. I'm sure there's some javascript / backend logic that handles some corner cases. But... yeah. A lot of self-looping .mp4 stuff seems to be solved. The <video> tag has been getting more and more consistent these days. I just do some hobby stuff though. I only test on the stuff close to me (chrome, edge, firefox, my phone). So I can't say too much about reliability on older / more obscure platforms.

FalconSensei 5y ago
Twitter does the same, and I (along with other people) hate it. I mean... nice that it saves data, but I can't save it. To download an image is SO simple, but have to rely on 3rd party services to convert the video back to gif if I want to post it as gif on twitter later, or send as gif on whatsapp.
- dragontamer 5y ago
  I know enough about the debugging terminals in Chrome and Firefox to just "save-as" the .mp4 file itself. So I personally haven't had any problems with saving or sharing .mp4s. (Most commonly: grabbing some animated .mp4 meme and copy/pasting it into Discord) But yes: its weird that Chrome / Firefox don't have easy-to-use "save as" buttons on .mp4s. But just grab the .mp4 and share the .mp4 on whatever services you use. Increasingly, it seems like .mp4 is becoming the new gif. Its not quite as user friendly yet, but there's all sorts of advantages compared to .gif.
  - FalconSensei 5y ago
    > I know enough about the debugging terminals in Chrome and Firefox to just "save-as" the .mp4 file itself. Right, so this just don't work for like 90% of the population, or when you are on mobile, right? Edit: what I mentioned about saving the mp4 and having problem later is: if I save the video and then try to re-share it on Twitter, it will be shared as a video, and not as a gif - or at least that was the case last time I tried

niutech 5y ago

Yes, just use <video autoplay loop muted playsinline>

FalconSensei 5y ago
That's when you are posting a video on your own website. If you are posting a gif on a comments section of a website, or uploading to tumblr, for example, you don't have this control
- niutech 5y ago
  That's the failure of Tumblr or any website that it doesn't optimize huge uploads by converting it to sane formats.