Which browser for h264 (nzherald) video support?

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gzt

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#111463 4-Nov-2012 12:20

Which browser do you use on Android to play video from the herald site?

Herald uses the Brightcove player which can deliver Flash or HTML5=H264.

Firefox on my Mac desktop prompts for installation of the Flash plugin which indicates either Brightcove is not smart enough to detect h264 support for FF on mac or FF does not have this support.

Safari plays this content using h264 no problems.

Which Android browsers will play the Herald videos in h264?

Before you say that [your browser] plays Herald videos in h264 - please visit the Flash player test page to see if Flash is installed on your device - my guess is Brightcove will use Flash by default therefore making success false where Flash is installed.

gzt

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#711707 4-Nov-2012 12:31

Guessing the answer to my own silly question 2 minutes later - probably Google Chrome for one.

n4

959 posts

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#711727 4-Nov-2012 13:40

Both Stock Android Jelly Bean browser and Chrome work fine for me. No flash on Jelly Bean.

Samsung Note20 Ultra, on 2degrees

Ragnor

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#711988 5-Nov-2012 02:03

Mozilla is against supporting h.264 directly in the browser due licensing costs. Firefox only supports it if the OS has codecs already like Windows 7.

I'm not sure if newer Android versions have the codecs natively, may vary.

Refer to:
http://www.neowin.net/news/firefox-support-for-h264-has-arrived-sort-of

Anyway I believe the Brightcove player can fallback to serving thedora/ogg vorbis or webm to Firefox.

NZ herald need add either webm or ogv/ogg to their process for transcoding and uploading video to their site/system.

However, Chrome for Android should be able to play H.264 no problem.

cdouble

91 posts

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#712212 5-Nov-2012 13:14

Ragnor: Mozilla is against supporting h.264 directly in the browser due licensing costs. Firefox only supports it if the OS has codecs already like Windows 7.

Mozilla's stance on this has changed.

Nightly versions of Firefox for Android have H.264 support for some devices. Beta versions for Android will have support soon. Firefox OS devices (previously known as B2G) also have H.264 support. Support for desktop is being implemented.

kiwitrc

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#712218 5-Nov-2012 13:24

Opera works fine as well.

Ragnor

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#712625 5-Nov-2012 22:45

cdouble:
Ragnor: Mozilla is against supporting h.264 directly in the browser due licensing costs. Firefox only supports it if the OS has codecs already like Windows 7.
Mozilla's stance on this has changed.

Nightly versions of Firefox for Android have H.264 support for some devices. Beta versions for Android will have support soon. Firefox OS devices (previously known as B2G) also have H.264 support. Support for desktop is being implemented.

Yeah that's what the link I posted said too.

Given Firefox is using the OS's codecs rather than ones that ship with the browser it's entirely OS/device dependent.

cdouble

91 posts

Master Geek

#712641 6-Nov-2012 01:09

Ragnor:

Yeah that's what the link I posted said too.

Given Firefox is using the OS's codecs rather than ones that ship with the browser it's entirely OS/device dependent.

Oops, sorry, I missed your link on first read. You are correct it's OS/device dependent. I work for Mozilla in Auckland on H.264 support for Firefox on Android and Firefox OS. The set of devices that hardware accelerated H.264 decoding works on will be fairly small at first as we find out what's compatible and what's not.