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Actually, Firefox uses the platform decoders to decode patented codecs like H264 or AAC. So the operating system does play a role. I also think it's not unreaso

by rockdoe 11y ago

Actually, Firefox uses the platform decoders to decode patented codecs like H264 or AAC. So the operating system does play a role. I also think it's not unreasonable to believe that hardware accelerated H264 decoding works less well on Linux.

vog 11y ago
Good catch. So replacing "HTLM5" with "video codes", this may have a point. But I'm still wondering, as we have very good decoders from projects like FFmpeg and VLC. (Not sure which of all those decoders are used by Firefox.) These are platform independent and to my experience better than the platform specific libraries. For example, I often hear that people install VLC under Windows because it decodes lots of video formats better than the natively available Windows Media Player. So the native Windows libraries probably aren't that good. Also, at least the FFmpeg project explicitly states that they don't care about patent FUD, so we can safely assume they don't cripple their decoders in the fear of violating patents: https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html
- TD-Linux 11y ago
  Firefox can actually use ffmpeg as a decoder. It would be a great option for supporting a lot of these formats. However, Mozilla can't ship it enabled, because the patent problem is very real. See, for example, all of the Play Store apps that got C&D letters from Dolby for using ffmpeg's implementation of AC3. Firefox does ship a lot of other video and audio codecs though, such as vorbis, opus, theora, vp8, and vp9. It's recommended to use these for HTML5 when possible because they can be easily supported everywhere.
  - vog 11y ago
    > However, Mozilla can't ship it enabled Just a minor nitpick: Under Linux, people don't download from Mozilla but have it installed by default. If not, they install via package manager and not via download from Mozilla. So it's not Mozilla making that decision, but the respective Linux distros. But of course they have the same problem. I believe a good compromise would be to check if ffmpeg is installed on the system, and use it only when available. So the user would have to install ffmpeg directly. That would be a very different situation from including code from ffmpeg directly into some app.
    - zurn 11y ago
      Mozilla does not allow Firefox trademark use for distro customized builds.
      - rockdoe 11y ago
        False. It's allowed as long as Mozilla approves the changes. This is how Ubuntu ships Firefox.
    - TD-Linux 11y ago
      Firefox actually does do this. It can also use whatever gstreamer codecs you have installed (e.g. gstreamer-ffmpeg/libav).

by rockdoe 11y ago

vog 11y ago

Good catch. So replacing "HTLM5" with "video codes", this may have a point. But I'm still wondering, as we have very good decoders from projects like FFmpeg and VLC. (Not sure which of all those decoders are used by Firefox.) These are platform independent and to my experience better than the platform specific libraries. For example, I often hear that people install VLC under Windows because it decodes lots of video formats better than the natively available Windows Media Player. So the native Windows libraries probably aren't that good. Also, at least the FFmpeg project explicitly states that they don't care about patent FUD, so we can safely assume they don't cripple their decoders in the fear of violating patents: https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html

TD-Linux 11y ago
Firefox can actually use ffmpeg as a decoder. It would be a great option for supporting a lot of these formats. However, Mozilla can't ship it enabled, because the patent problem is very real. See, for example, all of the Play Store apps that got C&D letters from Dolby for using ffmpeg's implementation of AC3. Firefox does ship a lot of other video and audio codecs though, such as vorbis, opus, theora, vp8, and vp9. It's recommended to use these for HTML5 when possible because they can be easily supported everywhere.
- vog 11y ago
  > However, Mozilla can't ship it enabled Just a minor nitpick: Under Linux, people don't download from Mozilla but have it installed by default. If not, they install via package manager and not via download from Mozilla. So it's not Mozilla making that decision, but the respective Linux distros. But of course they have the same problem. I believe a good compromise would be to check if ffmpeg is installed on the system, and use it only when available. So the user would have to install ffmpeg directly. That would be a very different situation from including code from ffmpeg directly into some app.
  - zurn 11y ago
    Mozilla does not allow Firefox trademark use for distro customized builds.
    - rockdoe 11y ago
      False. It's allowed as long as Mozilla approves the changes. This is how Ubuntu ships Firefox.
  - TD-Linux 11y ago
    Firefox actually does do this. It can also use whatever gstreamer codecs you have installed (e.g. gstreamer-ffmpeg/libav).