[webkit-help] Media Source Extensions support

[Dean Jackson]

On 24 Oct 2013, at 11:37 am, Connor McKay <connor at verticalforest.com> wrote:

> Hello Everyone,
> 
> I am the developer of a Safari extension called YouTube5 that converts flash-based videos on YouTube and other sites to use the native <video> element instead.
> 
> Recently, YouTube has begun delivering their high-resolution formats using MPEG-DASH, and in Chrome their HTML5 player uses the Media Source api to play these videos. I have been poking around the WebKit trac and have found several build flags for Media Source, but I haven't found any information on the maturity or timeline for this API. It appears that this was a feature that was initially developed before the Blink fork, but I cannot tell how much development has gone on since then.
> 
> Is anyone working on Media Source Extensions?

Yes, there has been a lot of recent work in WebKit regarding MSE.

e.g. https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=122484
(but do a search on bugs.webkit.org for more info)

> Is support for them mostly built already and just not ready for prime time, or is it mostly just a stub?

I’m not sure how close we are, but it is more than a stub.

> Is the Safari/WebKit team behind MPEG-DASH as a delivery format, or is it focusing on Apple's HTTP Live Streaming?

Apple doesn’t comment on future plans. Also, since this is the Open Source WebKit project list, the question isn’t really appropriate. If you want to ask Apple to support MPEG-DASH, the best thing to do is to file a bug at bugreporter.apple.com.

Dean