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[d]R

Member

Registered: 2010-03-05

Posts: 3

html5 video (i.e. h.264/mpeg4) support in uzbl

Hi all,

I've seen a handful of references to this scattered around the web, and the solution looks like it should be fairly simple.

I hate Flash & I'm sure many of you hate it too. lol
I try avoiding Flash whenever possible and now sites like Youtube are testing alternatives. While Youtube only is only offering content in h.264 (which isn't exactly free either), it seems like it's worth a shot if I'm already using html5 capable browser.

I've recently switched to Uzble, the awesome webkit based beauty born from these forums. I already have GStreamer on my system, but html5 enabled youtube tells me my browser doesn't support it's video format. I assume this means webkit doesn't pick up video facilities easily like it does with Flash & that I need to customize some Uzbl scripts. I'm hoping someone can at least point me in the right direction.

Btw, I'm fully aware that I can stream Youtube videos externally (with players like VLC) and do, but that's not what I'm trying to do.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: html5 video (i.e. h.264/mpeg4) support in uzbl

At first I was like, open source web browsers like Firefox and Chromium don't support h.264 because it is illegal to distribute it in the US without paying money. Uzbl probably can't legally support it either.

But then I was like, we already have mplayer / gstreamer / whatever that plays everything. You mean, you would like to see HTML5 video implemented in uzbl by just calling another video player?

Hmm... But now I'm like, does uzbl use an unmodified "libwebkit"? If it does, then the way it handles HTML5 depends on webkit.

I wonder.

[d]R

Member

Registered: 2010-03-05

Posts: 3

Re: html5 video (i.e. h.264/mpeg4) support in uzbl

Chromium doesn't support h.264 However, Google's chrome does, using its implementation of FFMpeg. Also, I've heard of people configuring other webit browsers like Epiphany to use GStreamer to get html5 video support.

Since Uzbl is designed to be highly configurable and modular, I'm hoping I can do this without having to compile a custom build. I'm trying to look through what documentation I can find, but Uzble is still pretty new without much floating around about it on the web, hence my community apeal. I'm hoping other people's experience with Uzble & h.264 can either save me from reinventing the wheel or at least speed up the discovery of a good solution if somehow no one has done this already.

Last edited by [d]R (2010-03-05 19:53:35)

wonder

Developer

From: Bucharest, Romania

Registered: 2006-07-05

Posts: 5,941

Website

Re: html5 video (i.e. h.264/mpeg4) support in uzbl

@[d]R chromium from our repos does support h.264 using ffmpeg.

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skanky

Member

From: WAIS

Registered: 2009-10-23

Posts: 1,847

Re: html5 video (i.e. h.264/mpeg4) support in uzbl

I don't know, but I would expect the support to be supplied by webkit, so it might be worth checking with them?

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"...one cannot be angry when one looks at a penguin."  - John Ruskin
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