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by derefr 3207 days ago
Audio controllers do at least do hardware-accelerated decoding of audio streams in e.g. H.264, though, yes?

But my question was more like: is Web Audio a mess mostly because it's an attempt to expose the features of the twenty-odd different OS audio backends on Windows/Mac/Linux, where the odd inclusions and exclusions map to the things that all the OS audio backends happen to share that Chrome can then expose?
2 comments
symstym 3207 days ago
> is Web Audio a mess mostly because it's an attempt to expose the features of the twenty-odd different OS audio backends

That is a good guess, but no. The main features of the Web Audio API (built-in nodes, etc.) are not backed by any kind of OS-level backend, it's all implemented in software in the browser. The spec design was based on what someone thought were useful units of audio processing. It's not a wrapping/adaptation of some pre-existing functionality.

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FrankBooth 3207 days ago
H.264 is a video codec.

If you mean AAC or MP3, which are usually used in the audio track along side H.264 in an MP4 or MP2-TS container, nobody outside of low power/embedded bothers to decode the audio codec in hardware, it's just not worth it.

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