9 ms·

Alternatively, ditch GIFs entirely and use bandwidth-friendly and feature-friendly HTML5 video.

by Sir_Cmpwn 13y ago

geelen 13y ago
Nah man GIFs are my spirit animal
zach 13y ago
Can you even autoplay HTML5 video on a page in, say, the platform I'm posting from, iOS 7?
- geelen 13y ago
  Nope, has to be triggered by a user action (like a tap), and can only play full screen. Also, if you loop a video, the control bars flash up then fade away each time it loops.
- dangerlibrary 13y ago
  No. And those with bandwidth caps are doubly grateful for that. Once for not being opted into wasting bandwidth, and again for the smaller file size if they choose to use it.
  - ivanca 13y ago
    The browser/tab/page should ask for permission to play video/audio, just like Chrome for mobile already does for other services (i.e. location)
  - Dylan16807 13y ago
    Or more likely you get a gif to avoid degradation, and you spend 10x as much bandwidth.
kennywinker 13y ago
Not gonna happen until html5 can be set up to autoplay on mobile, and can be copy-pasted into your messaging app and will autoplay there too. I suspect there are other requirements, but much as I love the idea of moving away from gifs (for bandwidth at LEAST) there are a set of things that only gifs can do. Side note: autoplaying html5 would be a massive annoyance, because html5 video can have audio.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- ivanca 13y ago
  You know mobile devices have audio controls right? And many android devices have a separated audio control for the browser/content and for the critical stuff (ringtones/notifications)
  - vernie 13y ago
    I had no idea, thanks!
  - nmeofthestate 13y ago
    I would disable any auto-playing audio technology on my Android phone; accessing the media volume control is such a huge pain in the arse - multiple taps and drags to rummage into the Settings and get to it. NB: the hardware controls only set the ringtone volume, unless you're too late and the phone is already playing media†. †hopefully - sometimes the hardware volume buttons still don't control media volume even when media is playing. (You can get widgets to control the various volumes, but I've not found one I really liked).
    - sp332 13y ago
      When you click the volume control, it brings up your ringer volume. At the right-hand side of the volume control is a settings button. That button will bring up all your volumes in a little floating bubble, so you can always change any volume in one click + 2 taps, and no "rummaging".
      - nmeofthestate 13y ago
        Hmm... I see no sign of this button on Android 4.4.2.
        deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
est 13y ago
Do you know why HTML5 video is not as popular as gif? Gif is easily copy-pastable, both by content and raw file URL. Thus help its viral spreading
- rasz_pl 13y ago
  nothing stops mp4 files from being easily copy-pastable ...other than software vendors and patents :/
Crito 13y ago
Give me an imgur of silent filesize limited html5 videos. No, youtube or vine don't cut it, I want to be able to give people a link to a raw file that they will automatically know to be small and silent.
- rcxdude 13y ago
  http://gfycat.com/ http://gfycat.com/
- swanson 13y ago
  http://gfycat.com/ http://gfycat.com/ has been gaining popularity on reddit lately. Links allow you to pick gif or html5 video. Example: http://gfycat.com/GlisteningBruisedClingfish http://gfycat.com/GlisteningBruisedClingfish
  - Crito 13y ago
    The last time I looked they did not seem to have a way to upload videos, only gifs, making it pointless to me since either way I was uploading the same thing. It looks like they've fixed this, but their UX still needs work. It also seems that there is a discrepancy in permissible length with them. They will allow you to upload gifs that are longer than 15 seconds, but not videos that are longer than 15 seconds.
  - Sir_Cmpwn 13y ago
    No no no no no ;_; I made this website, use it instead: https://mediacru.sh https://mediacru.sh It also does HTML5 GIFs and has a fallback for phones and such. BUT it's also open source, much higher quality, more featureful, and supports more than just GIFs. Even though MediaCrush and gfycat started around the same time and MediaCrush is much better, I can't seem to get people to use it more. I guess our users are less evangelical.
    - bobsgame 13y ago
      You need a flashier, more colorful logo and a bright red BETA tag and a cute name and silly slogan and a login link and a moving number counter on the front page. gfycat looks alive, yours looks static and cold. mediacru.sh is hard to type and not as memorable of a name. Average internet user won't care about "open source" or features they don't know are missing. Other than that, great work. You can do it.
heyheyhey 13y ago
gftcat baby! http://gfycat.com/ http://gfycat.com/
com2kid 13y ago
Which work differently in different browsers. Currently HTML5 shows up as nothing more than a green screen in FF and will do such until I reboot my machine. (Presumably this is a video driver issue, still annoying, Video elements work for me for awhile then will suddenly just stop working.) Flash keeps on working. Well mostly, as well as it ever has worked. Even better are pages that see that I have FF and just assume they can feed me video, not allowing me to fall back to Flash if I have bothered to go to about:config and disable all relevant HTML5 settings.
cLeEOGPw 13y ago
Can you save html5 video as file as easily as gif?
yvoschaap2 13y ago
Don't forget an important reason gifs are rampant; they aren't chased by take-downs of copyright holders, while video snippets are much more exposed...

Alternatively, ditch GIFs entirely and use bandwidth-friendly and feature-friendly HTML5 video.

geelen 13y ago

Nah man GIFs are my spirit animal

zach 13y ago

Can you even autoplay HTML5 video on a page in, say, the platform I'm posting from, iOS 7?

geelen 13y ago
Nope, has to be triggered by a user action (like a tap), and can only play full screen. Also, if you loop a video, the control bars flash up then fade away each time it loops.
dangerlibrary 13y ago
No. And those with bandwidth caps are doubly grateful for that. Once for not being opted into wasting bandwidth, and again for the smaller file size if they choose to use it.
- ivanca 13y ago
  The browser/tab/page should ask for permission to play video/audio, just like Chrome for mobile already does for other services (i.e. location)
- Dylan16807 13y ago
  Or more likely you get a gif to avoid degradation, and you spend 10x as much bandwidth.

kennywinker 13y ago

Not gonna happen until html5 can be set up to autoplay on mobile, and can be copy-pasted into your messaging app and will autoplay there too. I suspect there are other requirements, but much as I love the idea of moving away from gifs (for bandwidth at LEAST) there are a set of things that only gifs can do. Side note: autoplaying html5 would be a massive annoyance, because html5 video can have audio.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
ivanca 13y ago
You know mobile devices have audio controls right? And many android devices have a separated audio control for the browser/content and for the critical stuff (ringtones/notifications)
- vernie 13y ago
  I had no idea, thanks!
- nmeofthestate 13y ago
  I would disable any auto-playing audio technology on my Android phone; accessing the media volume control is such a huge pain in the arse - multiple taps and drags to rummage into the Settings and get to it. NB: the hardware controls only set the ringtone volume, unless you're too late and the phone is already playing media†. †hopefully - sometimes the hardware volume buttons still don't control media volume even when media is playing. (You can get widgets to control the various volumes, but I've not found one I really liked).
  - sp332 13y ago
    When you click the volume control, it brings up your ringer volume. At the right-hand side of the volume control is a settings button. That button will bring up all your volumes in a little floating bubble, so you can always change any volume in one click + 2 taps, and no "rummaging".
    - nmeofthestate 13y ago
      Hmm... I see no sign of this button on Android 4.4.2.
      - deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]

est 13y ago

Do you know why HTML5 video is not as popular as gif? Gif is easily copy-pastable, both by content and raw file URL. Thus help its viral spreading

rasz_pl 13y ago
nothing stops mp4 files from being easily copy-pastable ...other than software vendors and patents :/

Crito 13y ago

Give me an imgur of silent filesize limited html5 videos. No, youtube or vine don't cut it, I want to be able to give people a link to a raw file that they will automatically know to be small and silent.

rcxdude 13y ago
http://gfycat.com/ http://gfycat.com/
swanson 13y ago
http://gfycat.com/ http://gfycat.com/ has been gaining popularity on reddit lately. Links allow you to pick gif or html5 video. Example: http://gfycat.com/GlisteningBruisedClingfish http://gfycat.com/GlisteningBruisedClingfish
- Crito 13y ago
  The last time I looked they did not seem to have a way to upload videos, only gifs, making it pointless to me since either way I was uploading the same thing. It looks like they've fixed this, but their UX still needs work. It also seems that there is a discrepancy in permissible length with them. They will allow you to upload gifs that are longer than 15 seconds, but not videos that are longer than 15 seconds.
- Sir_Cmpwn 13y ago
  No no no no no ;_; I made this website, use it instead: https://mediacru.sh https://mediacru.sh It also does HTML5 GIFs and has a fallback for phones and such. BUT it's also open source, much higher quality, more featureful, and supports more than just GIFs. Even though MediaCrush and gfycat started around the same time and MediaCrush is much better, I can't seem to get people to use it more. I guess our users are less evangelical.
  - bobsgame 13y ago
    You need a flashier, more colorful logo and a bright red BETA tag and a cute name and silly slogan and a login link and a moving number counter on the front page. gfycat looks alive, yours looks static and cold. mediacru.sh is hard to type and not as memorable of a name. Average internet user won't care about "open source" or features they don't know are missing. Other than that, great work. You can do it.

heyheyhey 13y ago

gftcat baby! http://gfycat.com/ http://gfycat.com/

com2kid 13y ago

Which work differently in different browsers. Currently HTML5 shows up as nothing more than a green screen in FF and will do such until I reboot my machine. (Presumably this is a video driver issue, still annoying, Video elements work for me for awhile then will suddenly just stop working.) Flash keeps on working. Well mostly, as well as it ever has worked. Even better are pages that see that I have FF and just assume they can feed me video, not allowing me to fall back to Flash if I have bothered to go to about:config and disable all relevant HTML5 settings.

cLeEOGPw 13y ago

Can you save html5 video as file as easily as gif?

yvoschaap2 13y ago

Don't forget an important reason gifs are rampant; they aren't chased by take-downs of copyright holders, while video snippets are much more exposed...