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And now make it seekable, dynamically adapt bitrate, add subtitles, have clickable areas on the video and support all browsers and operating systems with variou

by dewey 2y ago

And now make it seekable, dynamically adapt bitrate, add subtitles, have clickable areas on the video and support all browsers and operating systems with various kinds of DRM and codecs and it’s not “just add a html tag” any more.

robertoandred 2y ago
Seekability, bitrate adaptability, and subtitles are all built in to properly crafted video files. Codec support is handled with multiple source elements inside the video element. The YouTube player is, at its core, a video tag.
- dewey 2y ago
  > The YouTube player is, at its core, a video tag. Nobody is disputing that. I'm disputing that "they could just use a video tag" to get the same functionality and I'm sure that anyone body working on a video player at any streaming service could instantly give you a list why it's not something that's only there for evil tracking or business reasons.
account42 2y ago
It could be if browser vendors actually implemented that functionality for the video element. Shame that a certain large browser vendor has a slight conflict of interest problem with that. And just plain <video> elements are seekable just fine as long as the server supports good old HTTP range requests. Dynamic bitrate is an issue but as a desktop user I'd just set it to max anyway. Clickable arease are pure cancer - just put links below the video.
- dewey 2y ago
  > Dynamic bitrate is an issue but as a desktop user I'd just set it to max anyway. Clickable arease are pure cancer - just put links below the video. You know that Desktop users account for < 10% of YouTube? Users on smartphones account for 70%-90% of usage based on some easy to find device statistics. Many of these are probably using cellular networks, so dynamic bitrate isn't just a "nice to have" feature. Most of the time interpolating data from the developer / HN bubble to rest of the internet is not a good idea.

by dewey 2y ago

robertoandred 2y ago

Seekability, bitrate adaptability, and subtitles are all built in to properly crafted video files. Codec support is handled with multiple source elements inside the video element. The YouTube player is, at its core, a video tag.

dewey 2y ago
> The YouTube player is, at its core, a video tag. Nobody is disputing that. I'm disputing that "they could just use a video tag" to get the same functionality and I'm sure that anyone body working on a video player at any streaming service could instantly give you a list why it's not something that's only there for evil tracking or business reasons.

account42 2y ago

It could be if browser vendors actually implemented that functionality for the video element. Shame that a certain large browser vendor has a slight conflict of interest problem with that. And just plain <video> elements are seekable just fine as long as the server supports good old HTTP range requests. Dynamic bitrate is an issue but as a desktop user I'd just set it to max anyway. Clickable arease are pure cancer - just put links below the video.

dewey 2y ago
> Dynamic bitrate is an issue but as a desktop user I'd just set it to max anyway. Clickable arease are pure cancer - just put links below the video. You know that Desktop users account for < 10% of YouTube? Users on smartphones account for 70%-90% of usage based on some easy to find device statistics. Many of these are probably using cellular networks, so dynamic bitrate isn't just a "nice to have" feature. Most of the time interpolating data from the developer / HN bubble to rest of the internet is not a good idea.