[clouddrover]

"Normal" people also don't care about TCP\IP or HTTP or HTML or image formats or any of the detail that makes the web or the internet generally work. It's a pointless argument.

"Normal" people do care about their videos starting fast with high image quality. AV1 will deliver them that and deliver it better than H.264 has done. This is true whether they know it or not, whether they care about it or not.

[simonh]

That's pure misdirection. If Apple didn't support HTTP iPhones would not be able to use the web at all. If Apple doesn't support VP8 nobody notices a thing.

Of course faster load times are nice, they will come, but whether it's through VP8, HEVC, VP1, or something else will take time to shake out. Meanwhile somebody on HN will moan about Apple's monopolistic user hostile refusal to support every single blasted codec released ever.

Good grief, there are even people who still think Apple should have supported Flash, and therefore presumably still support it because the world today would be so much better if Flash was still widely used, or something.

[clouddrover]

> If Apple doesn't support VP8 nobody notices a thing.

I notice. When I build an application which use video streams and I want to be able to use video without having to worry about the licensing implications. I want video to be royalty-free for all use cases just like all other internet formats and protocols are royalty-free. There is no reason for it not to be.

VP9 gives me that today and it's a shame Apple doesn't have VP9 support. Hopefully they'll announce their timetable for AV1 support soon (and maybe VP9 as a bonus).

[simonh]

Then include a renderer for VP9 in your App, as CnX Player does.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cnx-player-ultra-hd-enabled/...

[clouddrover]

I want it out of the box in Safari, like all other browsers offer. Apple will get there eventually with AV1 and hopefully they'll add VP9 support as well. VP9 and AV1 have some features in common which makes implementing support for both easier.

[pwinnski]

That seems incredibly unlikely. The calculus doesn't get better for VP9 as they introduce support for qualitatively better AV1.

[clouddrover]

The installed base is already there for VP9 which is an advantage it currently has over HEVC and AV1:

https://ngcodec.com/news/2017/10/21/why-we-are-supporting-vp...