Hi Laurent,
there are some key technologies that are under development that will
make theora a lot easier to deal with that should definitely be better
documented.
A really key project is http://firefogg.org which is a client side
transcoding Firefox extension that lets the web app supply the transcode
settings.. this makes transcoding and uploading theora video as simple
as a one click extension install then selecting you highest quality AVI
or DV source file. We will be using this with wikimeda commons
uploading. You can try it out on sites like videobin.org...
Installing an extension is much easier than client side application that
has to be downloaded, installed, "ran" configured, and then you have
to
preview and tweak your encode settings and then re-transcoded... then
select and upload your huge file over POST ... not very fun...
With firefogg you just select the source file and your done. (It also
uploads in 1 meg chunks so if your post request gets reset its no
problem you can continue where you left off ;)
I imagine more fancy interfaces to firefogg will spawn up pretty quickly
enabling web guis to transcoding settings... The best thing Mozilla can
do on the end user transcoding into theora front is give that project a
lot of visibility as it definitely the easiest way to hide transcoding
complexity and brings the transcoding concept into javascript apis space.
The other piece that needs more visibility for web developers is the
javascript libraries for in browser playback. These are important so
that the video tag can be used with confidence so that its rewritten to
something that the client visiting your website can "view". There are
a
few libraries for doing such rewrites (I work on mv_embed) but there is
also itheora and others.
And finally there is server side stuff like oggz_chop that greatly
improves seeking performance, interoperability and citation of video
clips. Archive.org is running oggz_chop I blogged about that here:
http://metavid.org/blog/2008/12/08/archiveorg-ogg-support/
Oggz chop should also be included in the documentation for web developers.
All these things could be better documented and much better marketed. I
do think Mozilla needs a shiny "making the switch to free formats - for
web developers" page. I don't think its desirable or practical to
expect
end users to dive into the complexities of transcoding and workflows
etc. Better to just save to disk in the native output of your video
editor and directly select that file. Beyond that basic
work-flow...Mozilla documentation efforts should primarily focus on the
web developer.
I would gladly provide input and possibly we can do some cross
applicable documentation for wikiemdia usage of theora video as well.
anyway keep us updated as you move forward.
peace,
michael
Laurent Fraisse wrote:> Hi All,
>
> Firefox 3.1 will be released in a couple of months and I still feel we need
> a strong knowledge base to leverage a widespread use of Theora.
>
> While working on the Firefox in Motion video I've been looking for some
kind
> of comprehensive documentation, but the best I could get was answers of the
> community here (thank you again). Theora will not become a standard if
> people have to err and miss and tweak their way through the web.
> But maybe I've missed some valuable website which, however incomplete,
could
> be a great starting point?
>
> I suggested to Mozilla that we set up a Theora Workshop, a wiki for
> instance.
>
> I have posted my thoughts on the Mozilla Marketing newsgroup:
> http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.marketing/topics
>
> How can we quickly move along that way?
>
>
> Laurent Fraisse
>
>
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