Implement HTML5 - The Flash alternative

tottycs

As most of us know Flash sucks. On my laptop with a great GPU but a bad CPU, Flash only cares about the CPU so it lags even on 720p steams. Flash is also almost guaranteed to crash if you have 3 flash frames up at the same time. If I watch stream on my 2nd screen, Flash can't handle it being muted and stay full screen, it minimizes once it looses focus.

HTML5 is way more stable and can handle utilizing both CPU and GPU. Even YouTube has a HTML5 alternative for people without Flash.

Itaku

HTML5 has been something I know has been in talks about, but don't know exactly what/if it's being implemented.

bgeorge

Last I heard HTML5 does not support RTMP, the protocal Twitch uses to deliver video feeds. Also, the ad platform (Twitch's revenue) is based on Flash. 

zicozz

Yeah, I don't think HTML5 is ready for streaming yet. Especially not streaming with ads.

anadox

I share your pain and I had an idea:

Consider something like twitch.tv premium, say it costs 5$ a month.

You can view every stream in html 5 (if you want) and you don't get ads anymore. Everytime an ad would have been shown, the streamer gets some money.

Maybe some of the adblock users would even use this, because they could support their favourite streamers without watching ads and without subscribing to every single one.

Fire

@anadox it doesn't matter, html5 doesn't support rtmp.

4tl4s

Looking for alternative to RTMP is probably a huge step. Regarding ads, haven't YouTube been using HTML5 for some time now?

Fire

@4tl4s as far as I know there is no alternative for realtime streaming. Youtube uses flash primarily, but I think they have an option for html5. I've never seen an ad when using the html5 player though.

poloz7

i was looking into the ad/HTML5 thing and it seems that there might be ways to do it if on a platform...which means TwichTV would have to make their own app to be able to support all this in an easy way.

polyh3dron

Yeah, I don't think HTML5 is ready for streaming yet. Especially not streaming with ads.

Comedy Central's website streams HTML5 with ads, so does Fox Sports.

Fire

@polyh3dron they also use different ad backends

1337hephaestus

Given that most people don't NEED HTML5, but many WANT it (as do I), the suggestion posted by anadox makes the most sense. I'd be willing to pay twitch to get delicious html5 streaming video.

some proofs of concept i found:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10039993/live-streaming-video-in-html5

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5858936/html5-live-streaming

http://riaconnection.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/testing-live-video-streaming-to-webgl-and-html5-video-tag/

aikao

I just really want some kind of alternative to flash.  I don't even care what it is.  Flash uses so much CPU and still lags the streams I want to watch like crazy.  I am always several minutes behind and still have to deal with both audio and video stuttering.

While I admit that my laptop isn't the greatest, it's still decent enough to play some pretty graphically intensive games with other processes running in the background.  But when I'm watching twitch I literally have to shut everything else off and there's still problems.