[Development] QWebEngine - H.264 playback, proprietary codecs.

[Steve Schilz]

-----------------------------

Thiago, Allan, Thanks for responding.

Probably complicated indeed!  Qt in general does a pretty great job of shielding us from lots of complexity.   I need to look into the ‘Free for decoding’ part more carefully, as that is my immediate need.  It seemed worth mentioning, and certainly imho makes QWebEngine all the more attractive if it could be made to work.

Steve Schilz
Pasco Scientific


Allan SandField Jensen Wrote:
>> Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2016 19:21:16 +0200
>> From: Allan Sandfeld Jensen <kde at carewolf.com<mailto:kde at carewolf.com>>
>> To: development at qt-project.org<mailto:development at qt-project.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Development] QWebEngine - H.264 playback, proprietary
>>    codecs.
>> Message-ID: <201607131921.16144.kde at carewolf.com<mailto:201607131921.16144.kde at carewolf.com>>
>> Content-Type: Text/Plain;  charset="utf-8"
>>
>> On Wednesday 13 July 2016, Steve Schilz wrote:
>> We are using QWebEngine to drive a hybrid app (Html5 + Javascript + C++) on
>> windows.  According to QWebEngineFeatures Doc,
>> http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtwebengine-features.html#pepper-plugin-api You must
>> pass a flag to qmake, WEBENGINE_CONFIG+=use_proprietary_codecs, and build
>> Qt from source yourself in order to support h.264 video decoding.
>>
>> In researching this, I became aware that Cisco provides a downloadable
>> binary codec, where Cisco pays the MPEG-LA royalties.   Apparently this is
>> the method used To provide h.264 playback in Firefox.  If you watch the
>> intellectual property rights video at
>> http://vimeo.com/cullenfluffyjennings/openh264-ipr, they explain why they
>> Did this, and how you can even make changes to the codec via open source
>> if needed.
>>
>> Would it make sense for QWebEngine to support this codec, in order to be
>> able to provide ?out of the box? (via download at end user?s computer),
>> support for h.264 playback in <video> tags?


> That sounds a bit complicated, since it needs to hook into Chromiums media
> backend and have a download mechanism.
>
> Note activating it the codecs is not a matter of cost. AFAIK the h.264 and
> h.265 codecs are currently patented but royalty free to decode. This makes it
> possible for our customers to activate them without paying anyway. This is
> however just the status quo, and I am not sure I want to risk enabling
> something that might make the open-source package something that you need to
> pay for in the future, which is why we prefer to stick with the same codecs
> Google makes available in their free open source browser Chromium.
>
> I would be more interested in making it easier to enable, or maybe offer
> somehow. It is just something we have to make sure we offer without
> guaranteeing it is and will remain free.
>
> `Allan




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