Posts Tagged ‘video’
Commentary: The Five Key Myths About HTML5
Pay no attention to the man behind the Mac. HTML5 won’t be a serious consideration for at least a few years.
By Jan Ozer
Posted on September 2, 2010
I was preparing for a webinar last week and scanned 46 websites to see how many used HTML5 as the primary playback option for video. This was a mix of media sites (14), business to consumer sites (22) and business to business sites (10). The answer was 1 – Wikipedia – with YouTube offering HTML5 as an alternative to Flash. Even Apple – the sugar doesn’t melt in my mouth, we believe in open standards — poster child for HTML5 uses the QuickTime plug-in for displaying video on Apple.com.
That got me thinking; why would any site where video was mission critical use HTML5 today, or even in the near term? There’s no standardized way to protect their content, no streaming server that can efficiently dole the content out to multiple viewers on different browsers and no scheme for adaptive streaming. There isn’t even full support for all advertising servers.
Looking at it from the other direction, the installed base of HTML5 compatible browsers is only around 40-50%, depending upon who you ask, and you need to produce using at least two, perhaps three codecs to service those browsers. That made me realize that HTML5 is a FUD and media driven fiction that won’t be widely relevant for at least three or four years, and then only if the relevant parties make some hard decisions that they’ve as of yet shied away from.
So here are my five key myths about HTML5. See here for the detailed explanation behind each.
Myth 1. Current Producers Hate Flash
Myth 2. HTML5 is Ready for Prime Time
Myth 3. Group Standards are the Best Way to Advance Technology Development
Myth 4. iPad Compatibility Equals HTML5 Compatibility
Myth 5. H.264 Video Equals HTML5-Compatible Video
HTML5 came to prominence with Apple’s decision to exclude Flash from the iPad. As part of that furor, HTML5 become the flavor of the month, and has garnered significant press and developer attention that far exceed its short term usability for most sites that don’t simply adopt technology for technology’s sake. HTML5′s value proposition today, and for the foreseeable future, is “encode in more formats that offer no advantage over H.264, and play on fewer computers, and distribute your on-demand video with less quality of service, fewer features and less ability to monetize than you can with Flash or Silverlight. Oh, and forget live.”
Wake me up when HTML5 is ready for prime time.
TubeMogul – use them if you care about your videos driving traffic
Posted on April 16, 2010
Tax day wasn’t a bad day at TubeMogul, since that’s when the analytics and ad-delivery company added transcoding to its offering. TubeMogul just launched its Destinations publishing suite, which automates content delivery and handles the transcoding for you.
The idea behind Destinations is to create “from anywhere to anywhere” video distribution, so a client can specify where to look for videos, tell Destinations how to transcode them for each destination, and have them delivered in seconds. Content can be automatically sent to video sites, custom FTP sites, content delivery networks, cable outlets, and more. The service lets content owners create custom feeds for iTunes and other Media RSS feed readers.
The Destination service is free for customers that host their own video files, so it’s clearly taking aim at transcoding programs and online transcoding services. The service lets you enter custom transcoding settings for each site that you’re uploading to. TubeMogul is working on a paid option for customers that also want hosting.
Two of the service’s beta testers were Syd and Marty Krofft, of children’s television fame. “Transitioning from television clips to detailed file requirements initially looked daunting, but TubeMogul made it effortless,” they said.
To promote the service, TubeMogul is giving away an iPad to the 1,000th user to set up a custom destination or feed.
TubeMogul’s recently launched ad network, PlayTime, has already found success, and Des
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