9 ms·

WebM support on 4chan

229 points by ivarious 12y ago

aspensmonster 12y ago
Awesome! I'm still waiting for other sites like imgur to get with the program :D Edit: Thread 2 (Yeah, 4chan, possibly probably nsfw, etc): http://boards.4chan.org/g/res/41215438#p41215438 http://boards.4chan.org/g/res/41215438#p41215438
- Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
  https://mediacru.sh https://mediacru.sh (I helped make this)
  - yohui 12y ago
    There's also http://gfycat.com http://gfycat.com, which seems fairly popular on reddit. And there's https://vine.co https://vine.co, too, though it's aimed at a different niche. But imgur support would really drive the replacement of GIFs with HTML5 video mainstream, if/when it arrives.
valarauca1 12y ago
This is a very big moment for WebM. I feel 4chan has become the 'porn' industry of the internet. With VHS vs Betamax the largely deciding factor was which standard porn supported (this was again to a lesser extent with bluray). The general lack of adoption of animated png's is often pointed squarely on 4chan. Since it generated most of the web's viral funny content. And since most of it was in .gif, who needs to support .apng? Hopefully we will see the opposite with WebM. More general funny content, more drive for it to be adopted on sites like reddit (which already to some extent uses gifcat on some subs), and imgur. Which will snowball its general adoption.
- moot 12y ago
  > I feel 4chan has become the 'porn' industry of the internet. This is the most flattering thing I've ever read about 4chan.
  - heydenberk 12y ago
    It's kind of hilarious how much easier it is to summon moot on HN than on, say, 4chan.
    - fosap 12y ago
      HN is pseudonymous, 4chan is mostly anonymous. Probably moot simply isn't a tripfag.
      - deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
  - gcb0 12y ago
    Porn industry? Isn't 4Chan an ocean of something or another?
- aspensmonster 12y ago
  I'd say Google has its own share of responsibility for the lack of adoption of APNGs. Chromium doesn't support them out of the box.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
    I suppose because that requires using libapng instead of libpng, maybe?
    - maxst 12y ago
      APNG support can be implemented on top of regular libpng. I have the working code.
  - valarauca1 12y ago
    You really shouldn't blame google, but blame KHTML (who's code base was forked to develop Webkit, and then Blink). KHTML didn't move to support apng until 2010-2011 which was a few years after the webkit fork.
    - andyroid 12y ago
      So to get this straight, we should blame the KHTML devs for adding a feature after Google forked it's code? While not blaming Google for never adding the feature?
    - mpyne 12y ago
      uh hwat? APNG was still years away when Webkit was forked from KHTML. Webkit was so long ago that Firefox didn't exist, nor did "Mozilla Firebird", and IIRC nor did Phoenix.
- Natriceus 12y ago
  I just saw a one-minute porn WebM on /gif/. This is unbelievably great.
- threeseed 12y ago
  When is this "Porn decides video formats" argument going to die ? H.264 versus WebM wasn't decided by Porn. BluRay versus HD-DVD wasn't either.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
    I doubt that it really won the VHS/BetaMax war either.
moot 12y ago
More details here: http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support-on-4chan http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support-on-4chan
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  Hey, could I suggest something? For the inline expansion, it would be neat if it played automatically without needing to click, just like an animated GIF: <video src="blah" autoplay loop controls> You could also maybe hide the controls, they can be distracting (you could always add an option to enable them): <video src="blah" autoplay loop> EDIT: Thanks for fixing it!
- deanclatworthy 12y ago
  Nice to see this rolled out. In the notes it's mentioned that you won't offer a fallback. Was this a bandwidth consideration or that you decided simply not to try and support the remaining 14%? Or that you didn't want to maintain the infrastructure for transcoding the fallback file. In my experience at work I've found that whilst webm is generally smaller the difference is minute especially when you are dealing with files as small as 3MB.
  - moot 12y ago
    We don't have the resources to support transcoding, and since so much of our userbase is on browsers that support it I don't think we would regardless.
    - X4 12y ago
      Not sure how you're going to solve the WebM hosting issues, but I would be really curious to see a list of issues large sites like 4chan have. I think me and other people would surely like to solve such «sysadmin/developer puzzles» for fun. WebP is larger than APNG [1] and is supported more widely according to the following table [2]. There is a way to add compatibility to older browser too [3]. Other than that, there are also Opera [4] and Chrome [5] extensions for APNG. Update: Found a successful APNG kickstarter campaign, which lists some interesting APNG tools and libraries. [6] Also just tested myself how the filesize compares for different file formats able to host animated content for this source image [7]. gif – 679,6 Kb apng – 547,1 Kb mp4 – 273,8 Kb webp – 618,9 Kb (sorry, have no webm converter here) --- [1] http://littlesvr.ca/apng/gif_apng_webp.html http://littlesvr.ca/apng/gif_apng_webp.html [2] http://caniuse.com/apng http://caniuse.com/apng [3] http://davidmz.github.io/apng-canvas/ http://davidmz.github.io/apng-canvas/ [4] https://addons.opera.com/de/extensions/details/apng/?display=en https://addons.opera.com/de/extensions/details/apng/?display... [5] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/apng/ehkepjiconegkhpodgoaeamnpckdbblp https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/apng/ehkepjiconegk... [6] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/374397522/apngasm-foss-animated-png-tools-and-apng-standardi https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/374397522/apngasm-foss-... [7] http://37.media.tumblr.com/70a88618cc58ac5ad670ab175f8a1419/tumblr_mkf89sYdTB1rlk84to1_500.gif http://37.media.tumblr.com/70a88618cc58ac5ad670ab175f8a1419/...
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
bstar77 12y ago
Has anyone had experience optimizing for webm? I really want to support this codec, but it's insanely slow in my experience. I'm finding that it's generally around 4x slower than mp4, but I've also had cases where it's taken up to a minute to encode a file where h264 take under 10 seconds. My use case is to have the best performance/quality ratio for a 30 second video under 3mb. These are my ffmpeg flags: h264: "-vcodec libx264 -crf 28" webm: "-c:v libvpx -qmin 0 -qmax 50 -crf 5 -b:v 1M -c:a libvorbis -aq 4" The video I tested with these setting last night took 5 seconds on h264 and 35 seconds for webm, both outputting to a 2.6mb file. System Specs: - Intel Core i7 4770 Quad-Core 3.4GHz - 16gb 1866mhz memory - ssd drive - 64bit ubuntu 12.04 lts What further frustrates this is that I can use OpenCL to improve encoding times even more, but only with h264 in ffmpeg (as far as I know).
- gnur 12y ago
  I don't know the details, but how is the quality on both? I can image that webm takes longer, but if it creates a file that has a higher visual quality for the same filesize that is great. I think nearly all streaming providers would take an increase in processing time for a decrease in bandwith, while quality stays the same..
  - bstar77 12y ago
    They are of comparable quality. I find the h264 slightly better, but I have not done extensive testing. I did try dropping the quality significantly with my webm profile, but it had a trivial performance improvement.
  - bstar77 12y ago
    My hypothesis for the performance disparity is that h264 encoding is hardware accelerated and webm is not.
    - wolf550e 12y ago
      x264 does not use GPU hardware, so they're both using just the CPU. WebM fails to use more threads or 256bit or 128bit registers correctly.
stefantalpalaru 12y ago
Why not use a <video> tag with the 'loop' attribute to better simulate animated GIFs?
- Fasebook 12y ago
  and then, instead of using a browser, use a platform specific app. Persist user agent data so you can remove the captcha, and it will be just like the original 4chan.
  - TorKlingberg 12y ago
    I think Apple refuses to approve any 4chan apps for iOS.
- TD-Linux 12y ago
  It does use it. You need inline expansion or image hover enabled in settings though - 4chan has traditionally had minimal or no Javascript and this is an artifact of it.
  - stefantalpalaru 12y ago
    It didn't when I wrote that comment. It works much better now.
- modeless 12y ago
  And turn off video controls. They get in the way and lack of them never hurt gif.
  - McGlockenshire 12y ago
    Some browsers keep playing the video after you scroll past. Being able to stop it using the controls is valuable.
  - gillianseed 12y ago
    Hmm... the video controls only appear when I hover above the video, atleast on the 5 or so webm files I tried on 4chan just now.
kissickas 12y ago
OP's link is 404ing and moot's won't connect at all for me. There's no way HN took down 4chan. Anyone have additional info/a mirror?
- Spittie 12y ago
  The thread just got deleted, a new one here: http://boards.4chan.org/g/res/41216692 http://boards.4chan.org/g/res/41216692
- moot 12y ago
  HN mods should probably update the submission URL to this one: http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support-on-4chan http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support-on-4chan And you need to disable HTTPS Everywhere for blog.4chan.org since Tumblr doesn't support HTTPS :(
  - ancarda 12y ago
    That link doesn't work either: Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at blog.4chan.org. Edit: I just noticed moot's comment about disabling HTTPS Everywhere. The XML has an exclusion for "status" but not "blog". I'll send a pull request.
    - eshyong 12y ago
      The link works for me on Firefox Nightly (yesterday's update).
  - Grue3 12y ago
    Tumblr does support HTTPS, just not by default yet.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
kalleboo 12y ago
Any reason to not support h264, which seems to have similar levels of browser support? (trades Firefox on Linux/OS X/WinVista for support on IE/Safari/iOS/Android)
- gcb0 12y ago
  Probably he cares about software freedom?
  - dethstar 12y ago
    Then why would 4chan be not free?
  - threeseed 12y ago
    WebM is not free. It is controlled by a single company. https://code.google.com/p/webm/source/browse/third_party/googletest/src/CONTRIBUTORS?repo=libvpx&r=f89ea3432fd213f0e7c65eceaf6553cb3191306d https://code.google.com/p/webm/source/browse/third_party/goo...
    - yohui 12y ago
      First, free software can be developed by one entity, or even one person. Second, that's a list of contributors to the "Google C++ Testing Framework", not WebM.
      - enneff 12y ago
        Third, the AUTHORS file for libvpx lists people from nVidia, Opera, Broadcom, and many other non-Googlers. https://code.google.com/p/webm/source/browse/AUTHORS?repo=libvpx https://code.google.com/p/webm/source/browse/AUTHORS?repo=li...
- simcop2387 12y ago
  That trade might not be equal. As it is, the second one there according to the article only makes up 14% of traffic. I've got to imagine that Firefox makes up a significant portion of the 86% left. Couldn't guess about the platforms though.
shmerl 12y ago
One problem I have is that there is no way to set format priority which would override page order. And because of some Apple's stupid bugs in Safari most pages list mp4 first. Current Firefox already supports mp4/H.264 through gstreamer, so it always picks that first even if WebM is available. I'd prefer to set some option of "free codecs first".
d0ugie 12y ago
People don't just view images on 4chan, they save like hoarders and upload elsewhere, and these files spread and spread within and far beyond 4chan. Though its users probably won't race too fast to convert all their gifs, perhaps if moot sees the benefits from the use it does begin to get he may decide to convert all gifs server-side. And other such sites may follow suit. And maybe those users who make new short clips with the format not by transcoding gifs but by extracting from actual videos will dazzle other users with the higher quality of webm, as 256 is not a big number when it comes to colors. Given the site's popularity and the volume of images that churn through it, that it's adopting WebM for goofy animation (as opposed to animated WebPs, which would be wasteful) is indeed noteworthy in evangelizing free technology to make the web faster and better. Oh happy day. To all you feline enthusiasts, here's moot's ffmpeg protip for converting: http://goo.gl/kckG6d http://goo.gl/kckG6d (nsfw 4chan thread)
sprash 12y ago
WebM is clearly a far inferior experience compared to gif on firefox: - at the start there is a stupid "fade in" effect. - the loading animation does sometimes not disappear even though the video has fully loaded. - the loading animation is generally annoying. Gifs just stop when bufffering and continue as soon as there is new data. - a useless control bar shows at the bottom on hovering. - Unlike gifs the video does not stop when you scroll beyond it which causes a huge amount of processor load.
- lelandbatey 12y ago
  Hey, I think that a scroll bar is a feature, not a bug. Also, I'm pretty sure now that there's finally some traction happening for HTML5 video, Firefox may now improve the experience. I'm glad to see WebM happening.
- Cthulhu_ 12y ago
  Don't think that's webm specific, just firefox's implementation thereof. I do agree though, they should just play. Not stopping is probably a feature; if it's music playing it should keep going. But it could stop rendering / taking up much cpu if not in view, I guess.
- sb057 12y ago
  >- at the start there is a stupid "fade in" effect. This is only for non-embedded images. Also, I'm pretty sure this can be "fixed" with ease. >- the loading animation does sometimes not disappear even though the video has fully loaded. After viewing hundreds, if not thousands, of WebM files, I have never experienced this. >- the loading animation is generally annoying. Gifs just stop when bufffering and continue as soon as there is new data. Again, I have never seen this happen. >- a useless control bar shows at the bottom on hovering. Since when is being able to control playback useless? >- Unlike gifs the video does not stop when you scroll beyond it which causes a huge amount of processor load. Fair enough, but this will surely be implemented soon enough.
  - derf_ 12y ago
    > Fair enough, but this will surely be implemented soon enough. Starting in <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=963922> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=963922>.
X-Istence 12y ago
Where can I go download a plugin for Safari on OS X?
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
frozenport 12y ago
It doesn't autoplay.
pippy 12y ago
WebM is a fantastic step forward. I prefer gfycat links over imgur gifs when browsing reddit (gfycat is a service that converts gifs to WebM). It does have minor teething problems (controls, loading animations, etc) but its advantages outweigh its negatives. WebP however for some reason hasn't gained as much traction as WebM. Firefox refuses to merge support, despite the fact it leverages the same library is WebM. I'd like to see WebP gain support more than WebM, Google's mod_speed converts images to WebM if using the Chrome browser to save on bandwidth.
- bluthru 12y ago
  Gyfycat does not use WebM, it uses mp4: http://gfycat.com/about http://gfycat.com/about
  - exadeci 12y ago
    They have both http://gfycat.com/CheapDecisiveChipmunk.webm http://gfycat.com/CheapDecisiveChipmunk.webm http://gfycat.com/CheapDecisiveChipmunk.mp4 http://gfycat.com/CheapDecisiveChipmunk.mp4

229 points by ivarious 12y ago

Awesome! I'm still waiting for other sites like imgur to get with the program :D Edit: Thread 2 (Yeah, 4chan, possibly probably nsfw, etc): http://boards.4chan.org/g/res/41215438#p41215438 http://boards.4chan.org/g/res/41215438#p41215438

Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
https://mediacru.sh https://mediacru.sh (I helped make this)
- yohui 12y ago
  There's also http://gfycat.com http://gfycat.com, which seems fairly popular on reddit. And there's https://vine.co https://vine.co, too, though it's aimed at a different niche. But imgur support would really drive the replacement of GIFs with HTML5 video mainstream, if/when it arrives.

valarauca1 12y ago

This is a very big moment for WebM. I feel 4chan has become the 'porn' industry of the internet. With VHS vs Betamax the largely deciding factor was which standard porn supported (this was again to a lesser extent with bluray). The general lack of adoption of animated png's is often pointed squarely on 4chan. Since it generated most of the web's viral funny content. And since most of it was in .gif, who needs to support .apng? Hopefully we will see the opposite with WebM. More general funny content, more drive for it to be adopted on sites like reddit (which already to some extent uses gifcat on some subs), and imgur. Which will snowball its general adoption.

moot 12y ago
> I feel 4chan has become the 'porn' industry of the internet. This is the most flattering thing I've ever read about 4chan.
- heydenberk 12y ago
  It's kind of hilarious how much easier it is to summon moot on HN than on, say, 4chan.
  - fosap 12y ago
    HN is pseudonymous, 4chan is mostly anonymous. Probably moot simply isn't a tripfag.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
- gcb0 12y ago
  Porn industry? Isn't 4Chan an ocean of something or another?
aspensmonster 12y ago
I'd say Google has its own share of responsibility for the lack of adoption of APNGs. Chromium doesn't support them out of the box.
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  I suppose because that requires using libapng instead of libpng, maybe?
  - maxst 12y ago
    APNG support can be implemented on top of regular libpng. I have the working code.
- valarauca1 12y ago
  You really shouldn't blame google, but blame KHTML (who's code base was forked to develop Webkit, and then Blink). KHTML didn't move to support apng until 2010-2011 which was a few years after the webkit fork.
  - andyroid 12y ago
    So to get this straight, we should blame the KHTML devs for adding a feature after Google forked it's code? While not blaming Google for never adding the feature?
  - mpyne 12y ago
    uh hwat? APNG was still years away when Webkit was forked from KHTML. Webkit was so long ago that Firefox didn't exist, nor did "Mozilla Firebird", and IIRC nor did Phoenix.
Natriceus 12y ago
I just saw a one-minute porn WebM on /gif/. This is unbelievably great.
threeseed 12y ago
When is this "Porn decides video formats" argument going to die ? H.264 versus WebM wasn't decided by Porn. BluRay versus HD-DVD wasn't either.
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  I doubt that it really won the VHS/BetaMax war either.

moot 12y ago

More details here: http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support-on-4chan http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support-on-4chan

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
Hey, could I suggest something? For the inline expansion, it would be neat if it played automatically without needing to click, just like an animated GIF: <video src="blah" autoplay loop controls> You could also maybe hide the controls, they can be distracting (you could always add an option to enable them): <video src="blah" autoplay loop> EDIT: Thanks for fixing it!
deanclatworthy 12y ago
Nice to see this rolled out. In the notes it's mentioned that you won't offer a fallback. Was this a bandwidth consideration or that you decided simply not to try and support the remaining 14%? Or that you didn't want to maintain the infrastructure for transcoding the fallback file. In my experience at work I've found that whilst webm is generally smaller the difference is minute especially when you are dealing with files as small as 3MB.
- moot 12y ago
  We don't have the resources to support transcoding, and since so much of our userbase is on browsers that support it I don't think we would regardless.
  - X4 12y ago
    Not sure how you're going to solve the WebM hosting issues, but I would be really curious to see a list of issues large sites like 4chan have. I think me and other people would surely like to solve such «sysadmin/developer puzzles» for fun. WebP is larger than APNG [1] and is supported more widely according to the following table [2]. There is a way to add compatibility to older browser too [3]. Other than that, there are also Opera [4] and Chrome [5] extensions for APNG. Update: Found a successful APNG kickstarter campaign, which lists some interesting APNG tools and libraries. [6] Also just tested myself how the filesize compares for different file formats able to host animated content for this source image [7]. gif – 679,6 Kb apng – 547,1 Kb mp4 – 273,8 Kb webp – 618,9 Kb (sorry, have no webm converter here) --- [1] http://littlesvr.ca/apng/gif_apng_webp.html http://littlesvr.ca/apng/gif_apng_webp.html [2] http://caniuse.com/apng http://caniuse.com/apng [3] http://davidmz.github.io/apng-canvas/ http://davidmz.github.io/apng-canvas/ [4] https://addons.opera.com/de/extensions/details/apng/?display=en https://addons.opera.com/de/extensions/details/apng/?display... [5] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/apng/ehkepjiconegkhpodgoaeamnpckdbblp https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/apng/ehkepjiconegk... [6] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/374397522/apngasm-foss-animated-png-tools-and-apng-standardi https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/374397522/apngasm-foss-... [7] http://37.media.tumblr.com/70a88618cc58ac5ad670ab175f8a1419/tumblr_mkf89sYdTB1rlk84to1_500.gif http://37.media.tumblr.com/70a88618cc58ac5ad670ab175f8a1419/...

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

bstar77 12y ago

Has anyone had experience optimizing for webm? I really want to support this codec, but it's insanely slow in my experience. I'm finding that it's generally around 4x slower than mp4, but I've also had cases where it's taken up to a minute to encode a file where h264 take under 10 seconds. My use case is to have the best performance/quality ratio for a 30 second video under 3mb. These are my ffmpeg flags: h264: "-vcodec libx264 -crf 28" webm: "-c:v libvpx -qmin 0 -qmax 50 -crf 5 -b:v 1M -c:a libvorbis -aq 4" The video I tested with these setting last night took 5 seconds on h264 and 35 seconds for webm, both outputting to a 2.6mb file. System Specs: - Intel Core i7 4770 Quad-Core 3.4GHz - 16gb 1866mhz memory - ssd drive - 64bit ubuntu 12.04 lts What further frustrates this is that I can use OpenCL to improve encoding times even more, but only with h264 in ffmpeg (as far as I know).

gnur 12y ago
I don't know the details, but how is the quality on both? I can image that webm takes longer, but if it creates a file that has a higher visual quality for the same filesize that is great. I think nearly all streaming providers would take an increase in processing time for a decrease in bandwith, while quality stays the same..
- bstar77 12y ago
  They are of comparable quality. I find the h264 slightly better, but I have not done extensive testing. I did try dropping the quality significantly with my webm profile, but it had a trivial performance improvement.
- bstar77 12y ago
  My hypothesis for the performance disparity is that h264 encoding is hardware accelerated and webm is not.
  - wolf550e 12y ago
    x264 does not use GPU hardware, so they're both using just the CPU. WebM fails to use more threads or 256bit or 128bit registers correctly.

stefantalpalaru 12y ago

Why not use a <video> tag with the 'loop' attribute to better simulate animated GIFs?

Fasebook 12y ago
and then, instead of using a browser, use a platform specific app. Persist user agent data so you can remove the captcha, and it will be just like the original 4chan.
- TorKlingberg 12y ago
  I think Apple refuses to approve any 4chan apps for iOS.
TD-Linux 12y ago
It does use it. You need inline expansion or image hover enabled in settings though - 4chan has traditionally had minimal or no Javascript and this is an artifact of it.
- stefantalpalaru 12y ago
  It didn't when I wrote that comment. It works much better now.
modeless 12y ago
And turn off video controls. They get in the way and lack of them never hurt gif.
- McGlockenshire 12y ago
  Some browsers keep playing the video after you scroll past. Being able to stop it using the controls is valuable.
- gillianseed 12y ago
  Hmm... the video controls only appear when I hover above the video, atleast on the 5 or so webm files I tried on 4chan just now.

kissickas 12y ago

OP's link is 404ing and moot's won't connect at all for me. There's no way HN took down 4chan. Anyone have additional info/a mirror?

Spittie 12y ago
The thread just got deleted, a new one here: http://boards.4chan.org/g/res/41216692 http://boards.4chan.org/g/res/41216692
moot 12y ago
HN mods should probably update the submission URL to this one: http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support-on-4chan http://blog.4chan.org/post/81896300203/webm-support-on-4chan And you need to disable HTTPS Everywhere for blog.4chan.org since Tumblr doesn't support HTTPS :(
- ancarda 12y ago
  That link doesn't work either: Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at blog.4chan.org. Edit: I just noticed moot's comment about disabling HTTPS Everywhere. The XML has an exclusion for "status" but not "blog". I'll send a pull request.
  - eshyong 12y ago
    The link works for me on Firefox Nightly (yesterday's update).
- Grue3 12y ago
  Tumblr does support HTTPS, just not by default yet.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

kalleboo 12y ago

Any reason to not support h264, which seems to have similar levels of browser support? (trades Firefox on Linux/OS X/WinVista for support on IE/Safari/iOS/Android)

gcb0 12y ago
Probably he cares about software freedom?
- dethstar 12y ago
  Then why would 4chan be not free?
- threeseed 12y ago
  WebM is not free. It is controlled by a single company. https://code.google.com/p/webm/source/browse/third_party/googletest/src/CONTRIBUTORS?repo=libvpx&r=f89ea3432fd213f0e7c65eceaf6553cb3191306d https://code.google.com/p/webm/source/browse/third_party/goo...
  - yohui 12y ago
    First, free software can be developed by one entity, or even one person. Second, that's a list of contributors to the "Google C++ Testing Framework", not WebM.
    - enneff 12y ago
      Third, the AUTHORS file for libvpx lists people from nVidia, Opera, Broadcom, and many other non-Googlers. https://code.google.com/p/webm/source/browse/AUTHORS?repo=libvpx https://code.google.com/p/webm/source/browse/AUTHORS?repo=li...
simcop2387 12y ago
That trade might not be equal. As it is, the second one there according to the article only makes up 14% of traffic. I've got to imagine that Firefox makes up a significant portion of the 86% left. Couldn't guess about the platforms though.

shmerl 12y ago

One problem I have is that there is no way to set format priority which would override page order. And because of some Apple's stupid bugs in Safari most pages list mp4 first. Current Firefox already supports mp4/H.264 through gstreamer, so it always picks that first even if WebM is available. I'd prefer to set some option of "free codecs first".

d0ugie 12y ago

People don't just view images on 4chan, they save like hoarders and upload elsewhere, and these files spread and spread within and far beyond 4chan. Though its users probably won't race too fast to convert all their gifs, perhaps if moot sees the benefits from the use it does begin to get he may decide to convert all gifs server-side. And other such sites may follow suit. And maybe those users who make new short clips with the format not by transcoding gifs but by extracting from actual videos will dazzle other users with the higher quality of webm, as 256 is not a big number when it comes to colors. Given the site's popularity and the volume of images that churn through it, that it's adopting WebM for goofy animation (as opposed to animated WebPs, which would be wasteful) is indeed noteworthy in evangelizing free technology to make the web faster and better. Oh happy day. To all you feline enthusiasts, here's moot's ffmpeg protip for converting: http://goo.gl/kckG6d http://goo.gl/kckG6d (nsfw 4chan thread)

sprash 12y ago

WebM is clearly a far inferior experience compared to gif on firefox: - at the start there is a stupid "fade in" effect. - the loading animation does sometimes not disappear even though the video has fully loaded. - the loading animation is generally annoying. Gifs just stop when bufffering and continue as soon as there is new data. - a useless control bar shows at the bottom on hovering. - Unlike gifs the video does not stop when you scroll beyond it which causes a huge amount of processor load.

lelandbatey 12y ago
Hey, I think that a scroll bar is a feature, not a bug. Also, I'm pretty sure now that there's finally some traction happening for HTML5 video, Firefox may now improve the experience. I'm glad to see WebM happening.
Cthulhu_ 12y ago
Don't think that's webm specific, just firefox's implementation thereof. I do agree though, they should just play. Not stopping is probably a feature; if it's music playing it should keep going. But it could stop rendering / taking up much cpu if not in view, I guess.
sb057 12y ago
>- at the start there is a stupid "fade in" effect. This is only for non-embedded images. Also, I'm pretty sure this can be "fixed" with ease. >- the loading animation does sometimes not disappear even though the video has fully loaded. After viewing hundreds, if not thousands, of WebM files, I have never experienced this. >- the loading animation is generally annoying. Gifs just stop when bufffering and continue as soon as there is new data. Again, I have never seen this happen. >- a useless control bar shows at the bottom on hovering. Since when is being able to control playback useless? >- Unlike gifs the video does not stop when you scroll beyond it which causes a huge amount of processor load. Fair enough, but this will surely be implemented soon enough.
- derf_ 12y ago
  > Fair enough, but this will surely be implemented soon enough. Starting in <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=963922> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=963922>.

X-Istence 12y ago

Where can I go download a plugin for Safari on OS X?

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

frozenport 12y ago

It doesn't autoplay.

pippy 12y ago

WebM is a fantastic step forward. I prefer gfycat links over imgur gifs when browsing reddit (gfycat is a service that converts gifs to WebM). It does have minor teething problems (controls, loading animations, etc) but its advantages outweigh its negatives. WebP however for some reason hasn't gained as much traction as WebM. Firefox refuses to merge support, despite the fact it leverages the same library is WebM. I'd like to see WebP gain support more than WebM, Google's mod_speed converts images to WebM if using the Chrome browser to save on bandwidth.

bluthru 12y ago
Gyfycat does not use WebM, it uses mp4: http://gfycat.com/about http://gfycat.com/about
- exadeci 12y ago
  They have both http://gfycat.com/CheapDecisiveChipmunk.webm http://gfycat.com/CheapDecisiveChipmunk.webm http://gfycat.com/CheapDecisiveChipmunk.mp4 http://gfycat.com/CheapDecisiveChipmunk.mp4