Firefox 33 Brings OpenH264 Support

[Luke]

1080p streaming requires more than codec support

@Luke: GreatEmerald isn't asking about h264 support in general, but specifically about MSE & H.264, because it's needed for 1080p videos (Youtube serves 1080p videos via DASH and that requires specific MSE support, non-DASH videos only go up to 720p). And the answer is: Firefox's MSE support is still too incomplete, so no MSE & H.264 yet and thus no 1080p on Youtube. Going by the current status in the nightlies, don't expect MSE & H.264 until at least Firefox 36.

I don't know what "MSE" stands for, but I do know that when using gstreamer with Firefox, it can play 1080p video, using 25% CPU on 4 cores and about 10-15% on the other 4 of an AMD FX-8120. Thus, on Linux distros with gstreamer-ffmpeg installed, Firefox supports 1080p files now. Never tested them from Youtube, but can play fine from a file on the desktop. Better off with MPV for that, however, because gstreamer doesn't seem to support hardware playback which uses less energy.

I've only seen one connection/computer configuration of all the ones I've worked on that could play a 1080p video by streaming over the Internet to the browser: a Phenom II 4 core on a cable modem that at certain hours when few are watching TV becomes nearly uncontended. I've got machines all the way back to Pentium 4's that can play 1080p in mplayer/mpv by using vdpau, but no dual-core machines and I've never seen a single core play back anything larger than 720p in software without severe lagging. Since Archive serves back the original file, I normally publish in no larger a resolution than 540p, which the fastest Pentium 4's and anything newer can play in browser, and which most landlines can handle the bitrate. If I offer 1080p, it is by a second upload of the same video, with users warned to expect to have to download it.

If Cisco does not negotiate for a license to permit them to redistribute code to support 1080p playback on their version of the codec, than Firefox will become a browser whose support for 1080p playback is limited to linux installs(usijng gstreamer) , though I heard there is supposed to be an ablity to use ffmpeg directly and ffmpeg is cross-platform. Still, it's a damned good thing that Mozilla has found a way to support at least the video formats most of the Youtube crowd actually can play over their connections, as otherwise their market share would plummet when pre-pepper Flash finally dies for good. This should be the beginning of the end of the "no browser can play all H264 videos by default" era.

[Gusar]

I don't know what "MSE" stands for, but I do know that when using gstreamer with Firefox, it can play 1080p video, using 25% CPU on 4 cores and about 10-15% on the other 4 of an AMD FX-8120.

Not on Youtube it can't. Other sites can of course do things differently, but getting 1080p on Youtube requires proper MSE support that doesn't yet exist in Firefox. It's possible to activate it in nightlies, but it's very buggy. Without that MSE support, the highest resolution video you can get on Youtube is 720p. MSE stands for Media Source Extensions.

If Cisco does not negotiate for a license to permit them to redistribute code to support 1080p playback on their version of the codec,

It's not about licensing, it's that OpenH264 is currently baseline profile only. That's a technical limitation. And it's independent of the resolution, you could very well have 1080p baseline profile video. I have no idea what Cisco's plans are, if they intend to add main and high profile support anytime soon. But even if they do, this only takes care of the video, there's the audio problem as well, someone would need to donate an AAC decoder, which I kinda doubt will happen. Not a big deal though, OpenH264 can remain WebRTC-only, Firefox has other methods to play HMTL5 video, see bellow.

than Firefox will become a browser whose support for 1080p playback is limited to linux installs(usijng gstreamer)

Not at all. Other platforms have their own media frameworks, and Firefox already supports them - MediaFoundation on Windows Vista/7/8, CoreMedia on MacOSX, OMX on Android. So h264/aac playback is possible in Firefox on all supported platforms (well, except WinXP, but meh).

[artivision]

The way Linux web browsers work can be categorized as total garbage. The video has overhead (not as fast as xv) so old pcs are doomed, flash rules without a working, free and with less overhead replacement. There is not even something "really working" to replace html5 and flash video window with a player plug-in like vlc.

[Gusar]

The video has overhead (not as fast as xv) so old pcs are doomed

Xv is too, how shall I say, primitive for the needs of web video. It's only good enough for simple overlays, like subtitles, but even that is rendered in video resolution, so blurriness ahoy when you go fullscreen (try watching a video with styled SSA subs with Xv, yuck). Now imagine rendering the web player interface like that. Not workable. That's why Flash doesn't use Xv either.

The solution is VAAPI/VDPAU, and Flash does support the latter (it's quite buggy though), but for some reason browser vendors aren't working on VAAPI/VDPAU support as a priority. Not sure what's the situation on Windows, if there's DXVA support there, I have a feeling there isn't. But they should work on this as a priority IMO, I quite agree with you that html5 video is way too resource intensive currently.

There is not even something "really working" to replace html5 and flash video window with a player plug-in like vlc.

Not even a greasemonkey script? I would think a script for html5 video shouldn't be very difficult. Flash is another matter, here site-specific code is probably needed.

[artivision]

Xv is too, how shall I say, primitive for the needs of web video. It's only good enough for simple overlays, like subtitles, but even that is rendered in video resolution, so blurriness ahoy when you go fullscreen (try watching a video with styled SSA subs with Xv, yuck). Now imagine rendering the web player interface like that. Not workable. That's why Flash doesn't use Xv either.

The solution is VAAPI/VDPAU, and Flash does support the latter (it's quite buggy though), but for some reason browser vendors aren't working on VAAPI/VDPAU support as a priority. Not sure what's the situation on Windows, if there's DXVA support there, I have a feeling there isn't. But they should work on this as a priority IMO, I quite agree with you that html5 video is way too resource intensive currently.

Not even a greasemonkey script? I would think a script for html5 video shouldn't be very difficult. Flash is another matter, here site-specific code is probably needed.

Something fast like XV such as GL2 would be good. By the way on my old P4 with GF5200, Nouveau and XV, styled subs inside anime mkvs are perfect with Smplayer on 720p. With XV-video-blitter in XFCE i don't have tearing even with compositing off. As for greasemonkey there is something like Linterna Magica but usually it doesn't work with web players that they said it does, what the hell there are like 10 of them. In any situation i tried with a personal made script to redirect a stream to a player before, everything was easy even with sound volume because i didn't use the web player's, the only thing that was site specific was the definition change, like 480p or 720p, i couldn't fix it universally, maybe it is possible tho.

[Gusar]

Something fast like XV such as GL2 would be good.

GL might be an option, yeah. But doing the stuff required for web video would need shaders, and old machines very likely have GPUs that don't have the necessary shader power. So no matter how you slice it, old machines are doomed when it comes to web video.

By the way on my old P4 with GF5200, Nouveau and XV, styled subs inside anime mkvs are perfect with Smplayer on 720p.

They're definitely not perfect, though at 720p they might not be as blurry as with lower resolutions. Still, try with opengl output, your GF5200 should be able to handle it, you'll see the quality will visibly increase.

Compare these two, the original video resolution is 640x480:
Xv: http://i.imgur.com/DJTRTxL.png
VAAPI: http://i.imgur.com/V0pmGH0.png