7 ms·

WebM for Internet Explorer

48 points by captn3m0 13y ago

PLejeck 13y ago
How old is this project? That's the old download page from Google, and the old YouTube design. And an old version of Windows.
- jensenbox 13y ago
  Wikipedia talks of its birthday here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM
- tuananh 13y ago
  younger than IE9.
- jensenbox 13y ago
  Find the source code and you will have your answer. Click on the installer help link on the download page - I could not find it there.
- evilpie 13y ago
  The installer has this timestamp: 1373509356 (Thu, 11 Jul 2013 02:22:36 UTC). So the last version probably isn't too old. (The timestamp of course is not necessarily correct)
Nux 13y ago
Nice, but ... webm needs to get hardware support (ie so it can be played from smartphones, tablets, raspberrypi etc), until then it's doomed to irrelevance.
- mda 13y ago
  Most of the newer Arm chips have hardware WebM support. http://wiki.webmproject.org/hardware/arm-socs http://wiki.webmproject.org/hardware/arm-socs .
  - samspenc 13y ago
    Just curious: is it possible for the same hardware to support both WebM and H.264?
- maggit 13y ago
  Some information about WebM/VP8 hardware support: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM#Hardware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM#Hardware Notably, "Nvidia is supporting VP8 and provides both hardware decoding and encoding in the Tegra 4 chipset."
- devx 13y ago
  Most of the main chip makers seem to have agreed to support it [1], but it's taking too much time to bring it to their chips. For example in 2014 I'm not going to care about wide VP8 support anymore. In 2014 I want to already see wide support for VP9, since VP9 is the next-gen codec. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM#Hardware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM#Hardware
devx 13y ago
Does it support VP9 and Opus yet?
jensenbox 13y ago
Just give it time - it will get discontinued like every other google project.
- jensenbox 13y ago
  Or they will make it play an advertisement before you can watch anything.
- jensenbox 13y ago
  Or they will use it to track every video you watch and post it on Google+ - for your convenience. All the while serving ads that are suited to your taste based on the video you are watching.
  - timothya 13y ago
    Or they will use it to track every video you watch and post it on Google+ Please don't spread misinformation; this doesn't happen. All the while serving ads that are suited to your taste based on the video you are watching. Yes, Google is able to show you videos for free by using ads. Would you prefer that they weren't suited to your taste or related to the video that you're watching? And would you prefer to have to see more ads because they would be less effective in that case?
- eliben 13y ago
  Naturally, when MS implements WebM, this project will not be needed any longer and can be discontinued. Seriously, why so much negativity?
  - RyanZAG 13y ago
    Yeah right. More likely this will be discontinued in 3 years time when Google has transitioned Youtube fully to WebM and has managed to convince enough web video to move across also. At that point, WebM for IE9 will be abandoned and a message will be placed on Youtube: "Your browser does not support WebM. Upgrade to Chrome to use Youtube!"
robwgibbons 13y ago
"We're sorry. This website requires the WebM plugin to function properly." - 1999
AshleysBrain 13y ago
Couldn't a software decoder be written in Javascript/HTML5? Then no plugin needed - which also means Metro mode support - and it should be passable for most desktops. And if it is choppy then hey, Chrome has built-in support...
- buster 13y ago
  A laptop becoming noisy and a webpage that will suddenly become unresponsive? Who is his right mind would implement this on his own webpage? It would only be attributed to your "shitty, slow" site, users don't care what video codec their browser supports.. That said, i had so high hopes for ONE standardized video codec in HTML5, but the w3c/whatwg just fucked it up (or better yet MS, Apple and Co. who couldn't agree on one standard just for profit-reasons).
  - harrytuttle 13y ago
    Spot on. This is the usual endgame for design by committee unfortunately especially when all the players are purely self interested. Someone needs to say: product X or fuck off.
  - meepmorp 13y ago
    > or better yet MS, Apple and Co. who couldn't agree on one standard just for profit-reasons Odd that the two companies you explicitly mention were just fine using h264 and didn't really stand to make money off the decision.
    - ZeroGravitas 13y ago
      Actually Apple was on record as being against patented tech in W3C standards and reached reportedly reached out to the patent holders to see if they would licence H.264 baseline royalty free and they refused. Apple also once held up the release of a new version of QuickTime until the Mpeg-LA backed down from the crazy royalty structure they planned for AAC. But they failed this time, so Apple supporters pretend everything is fine with the current royalty system, and Apple opponents pretend they never even tried.
kumarski 13y ago
Makes me wonder how many HN readers are in China.

48 points by captn3m0 13y ago

How old is this project? That's the old download page from Google, and the old YouTube design. And an old version of Windows.

jensenbox 13y ago
Wikipedia talks of its birthday here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM
tuananh 13y ago
younger than IE9.
jensenbox 13y ago
Find the source code and you will have your answer. Click on the installer help link on the download page - I could not find it there.
evilpie 13y ago
The installer has this timestamp: 1373509356 (Thu, 11 Jul 2013 02:22:36 UTC). So the last version probably isn't too old. (The timestamp of course is not necessarily correct)

Nux 13y ago

Nice, but ... webm needs to get hardware support (ie so it can be played from smartphones, tablets, raspberrypi etc), until then it's doomed to irrelevance.

mda 13y ago
Most of the newer Arm chips have hardware WebM support. http://wiki.webmproject.org/hardware/arm-socs http://wiki.webmproject.org/hardware/arm-socs .
- samspenc 13y ago
  Just curious: is it possible for the same hardware to support both WebM and H.264?
maggit 13y ago
Some information about WebM/VP8 hardware support: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM#Hardware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM#Hardware Notably, "Nvidia is supporting VP8 and provides both hardware decoding and encoding in the Tegra 4 chipset."
devx 13y ago
Most of the main chip makers seem to have agreed to support it [1], but it's taking too much time to bring it to their chips. For example in 2014 I'm not going to care about wide VP8 support anymore. In 2014 I want to already see wide support for VP9, since VP9 is the next-gen codec. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM#Hardware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM#Hardware

devx 13y ago

Does it support VP9 and Opus yet?

jensenbox 13y ago

Just give it time - it will get discontinued like every other google project.

jensenbox 13y ago
Or they will make it play an advertisement before you can watch anything.
jensenbox 13y ago
Or they will use it to track every video you watch and post it on Google+ - for your convenience. All the while serving ads that are suited to your taste based on the video you are watching.
- timothya 13y ago
  Or they will use it to track every video you watch and post it on Google+ Please don't spread misinformation; this doesn't happen. All the while serving ads that are suited to your taste based on the video you are watching. Yes, Google is able to show you videos for free by using ads. Would you prefer that they weren't suited to your taste or related to the video that you're watching? And would you prefer to have to see more ads because they would be less effective in that case?
eliben 13y ago
Naturally, when MS implements WebM, this project will not be needed any longer and can be discontinued. Seriously, why so much negativity?
- RyanZAG 13y ago
  Yeah right. More likely this will be discontinued in 3 years time when Google has transitioned Youtube fully to WebM and has managed to convince enough web video to move across also. At that point, WebM for IE9 will be abandoned and a message will be placed on Youtube: "Your browser does not support WebM. Upgrade to Chrome to use Youtube!"

robwgibbons 13y ago

"We're sorry. This website requires the WebM plugin to function properly." - 1999

AshleysBrain 13y ago

Couldn't a software decoder be written in Javascript/HTML5? Then no plugin needed - which also means Metro mode support - and it should be passable for most desktops. And if it is choppy then hey, Chrome has built-in support...

buster 13y ago
A laptop becoming noisy and a webpage that will suddenly become unresponsive? Who is his right mind would implement this on his own webpage? It would only be attributed to your "shitty, slow" site, users don't care what video codec their browser supports.. That said, i had so high hopes for ONE standardized video codec in HTML5, but the w3c/whatwg just fucked it up (or better yet MS, Apple and Co. who couldn't agree on one standard just for profit-reasons).
- harrytuttle 13y ago
  Spot on. This is the usual endgame for design by committee unfortunately especially when all the players are purely self interested. Someone needs to say: product X or fuck off.
- meepmorp 13y ago
  > or better yet MS, Apple and Co. who couldn't agree on one standard just for profit-reasons Odd that the two companies you explicitly mention were just fine using h264 and didn't really stand to make money off the decision.
  - ZeroGravitas 13y ago
    Actually Apple was on record as being against patented tech in W3C standards and reached reportedly reached out to the patent holders to see if they would licence H.264 baseline royalty free and they refused. Apple also once held up the release of a new version of QuickTime until the Mpeg-LA backed down from the crazy royalty structure they planned for AAC. But they failed this time, so Apple supporters pretend everything is fine with the current royalty system, and Apple opponents pretend they never even tried.

kumarski 13y ago

Makes me wonder how many HN readers are in China.