On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 3:04 PM, Ian Baker <ian(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
For mobile, I can't imagine this fixing itself all
that quickly. As your
tests show, good WebM playback isn't solvable in software on most of the
current generation of handsets. People will need to buy new devices to
make it really work.
Support for encumbered formats is a Board-level policy issue. Parallel
distribution in h.264 on mobile would be in contravention of the
guidance I got from the Board regarding free file formats the last
time I floated parallel distribution in proprietary codecs with them
(there's no formal resolution on it, IIRC). It's a highly specialized
use case with a unique justification, but we'd have to at least seek
the Board's acquiescence if we want to consider it for smartphone
video usage.
If someone wants to write up a memo with pros/cons of targeting that
smartphone h264 support, that would be helpful in case we want to move
this to Board-level reviews.
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
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