Firefox 3.6 Aims to Bring Fullscreen, Open Source Video to the Web
Mozilla is pushing ahead with its open video support in the Firefox web browser. Current developer builds of Firefox 3.6, expected to arrive later this year, now include a fullscreen option for movies embedded using the HTML5 video tag.
Early in the development of HTML5, the spec’s authors toyed with the idea of including a mandate requiring all browsers to support the open source Ogg Theora video codec. The goal was to create a single, open source video solution that would work in every browser.
Currently video on the web is generally embedded using proprietary technologies like Adobe’s Flash Player or Microsoft’s Silverlight plugin. Native HTML5 video would give users a way to watch movies online without the need of third-party plugins.
Unfortunately, while the HTML5 spec provides a way to embed video without using plugins, it stops short of specifying a video codec — which means codec support will vary from browser to browser, making it difficult to embed a single video that will work everywhere.
While the Ogg Theora recommendation has been dropped from HTML5, some browser vendors, like Mozilla, still intend to support the Ogg Theora codecs. In fact, Firefox 3.5 already offers full support for embedding .ogg videos using the HTML5 video tag.
However, one thing Firefox 3.5 lacks is the ability to play those videos in fullscreen mode. Given the increasing visual quality of online video, the missing fullscreen support is a conspicuous point against open video — especially when other video solutions, like Flash, have long supported fullscreen video.
Luckily the when Firefox 3.6 arrives at the end of 2009 Mozilla seems poised to include fullscreen support, putting open source video on largely equal footing with proprietary technologies like Flash or Silverlight.
As the Mozilla Links blog points out, for those that don’t want to wait for Firefox 3.6 to enjoy fullscreen video, there is a plugin available now which offers fullscreen support for native HTML5 video. However, the plugin has a few shortcomings — like the need to restart the video when you enter fullscreen mode.
While we’re happy to see Mozilla continue its support for native HTML5 video via Ogg Theora, keep in mind that Google is in the process of acquiring On2 Technologies, makers of a number of video codecs.
HTML 5 fans are hoping that, if the acquisition is approved, Google will turn around and make the newly acquired codecs open source — a move that could end the circular and unresolved debate over which video codec should be part of the HTML5 specification. In other words, even of Firefox is the only browser to fully embrace Ogg, there may still be hope for an open video codec requirement in HTML5.
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