[Webkit-unassigned] [Bug 197216] New: HTML5 Media Capture yields heavily compressed videos

[bugzilla-daemon at webkit.org]

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=197216

            Bug ID: 197216
           Summary: HTML5 Media Capture yields heavily compressed videos
           Product: WebKit
           Version: Safari 12
          Hardware: iPhone / iPad
                OS: Unspecified
            Status: NEW
          Severity: Normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: Media
          Assignee: webkit-unassigned at lists.webkit.org
          Reporter: douglasparker at google.com

Created attachment 368072

  --> https://bugs.webkit.org/attachment.cgi?id=368072&action=review

Video captured via the native iOS camera.

When using HTML5 media capture (`<input type="file" accept="video/*" capture="camcorder" />`), videos are heavily compressed as compared to the native camera. See the two attached videos, one captured via the native camera and the other via HTML5 media capture.

You can clearly see the difference in a test page we made. One video comes from the native camera (file picked into the app), the other comes from HTML5 media capture. See if you can tell which is which:
https://posts.google.com/bulletin/share/amp/yrLX769h/h9JkyV

I took a look at the output video files with FFprobe:

$ ffprobe Web.mov 2>&1 | grep h264   
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, smpte170m/bt709/bt709), 480x360, 748 kb/s, 30.01 fps, 30 tbr, 600 tbn, 1200 tbc (default)
$ ffprobe Native.mov 2>&1 | grep h264
    Stream #0:1(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709), 1280x720, 4813 kb/s, 30.01 fps, 30 tbr, 600 tbn, 1200 tbc (default)

The one from HTML5 media capture (Web.mov) is only 480p at 748 kb/s bitrate. By contrast, the natively capture video (Native.mov) runs at 720p at 4813 kb/s. That is a significant difference, and it provides a very strong incentive for users to prefer capturing with the native camera. Our PWA has no way around this problem as there are no controls to modify the quality. The best solution would be to limit users to only using the file picker, which negates the entire purpose of the HTML5 media capture API.

Can this quality be bumped up, or have some option added to allow clients to specify the quality?

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