[webkit-help] Supporting other video formats with HTML5 tag?

[Andre-John Mas]

On 12-Feb-2010, at 09:59, Eric Carlson wrote:

> 
> On Feb 11, 2010, at 7:59 AM, Andre-John Mas wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Currently the HTML5 video tag in Webkit only supports MPEG4/H.264, though for a project I have I would be interested in this supporting more. Is there any way a plug-in can be delegated to for playback? Ideally I would like to see VLC handling the content, so that I could specify any URL and video format that it supports.
>> 
>  The format(s) supported by the media element in WebKit are determined by the media engine(s) used by a port. For example, Apple's ports use QuickTime as the media engine, the GTK port uses GStreamer, etc. It is possible for a port to support more than one media engine, but it has to be done at compile time - it isn't possible to plug in a completely new media engine at runtime. 
> 
>  It is possible to add new formats to some media engines at runtime, for example QuickTime and GStreamer both have public APIs to extend their capabilities with plug-ins.
> 
>  As far as I know, none of the WebKit ports that support MPEG-4 only support H.264: Apple's ports support any linear audio and video format supported by QuickTime, Chrome supports Ogg, MPEG-4, and some QuickTime movies.
> 
>  We might be able to help if you explained more about what you want to accomplish - what platform(s) and formats do you need to support?

I am looking at the possibility of using Webkit as a basis for a HTPC type application (the UI would be done HTML with JS). For this reason I would be looking at something that could easily support local file formats as well as streaming formats such as RTSP and unicast/multicast video sources. Since the target platform is MacOS X, if Quicktime already provides access to all that through WebKit, then it should be a simpler task.

André