Session "Multimedia in WebKit", led by @philn (via @webhackfest @webkit)

Slides: https://github.com/user-attachments/files/20566744/multimedia_webkit_2025.pdf

https://github.com/Igalia/webengineshackfest/issues/58

https://floss.social/@webhackfest/114618871778667310

#ffmpeg #vlc #hvec #webm #vp9 #webkit

The last days i wanted to deliver a video (as a static video file) on my webserver to friends. Personally i mostly use #vp9 / #opus codec in #webm container. This worked everywhere but on #iOS. I do not have an Iphone so i could not test it before.

I tried to get vp9 working (and ask friends to test again), but couldn't get it work, though there are many announcements that Safari will supports it (in 2020). Then i tried #h265 / #hvec in mp4 container because Iphones use this for encoding their recorded videos. So i thought this must work. But also that did not work.

Afterwards i found this guide who tells that #Safari only accepts #h264 static video files. Everything else has to be delivered by #HLS. Does anyone knows why? Is there a technical reason why accepting h265 videos in hls but not in static file? https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/delivering_video_content_for_safari

During my research i found many different arguments why iPhones did not support vp9 (due to missing hardware decoders or because it increases code complexity). I can understand that but i can not tell you if this is the real reason (or just because its a standard of Google). But on the otherside i found information that Apple supports VP9 with HLS. but does not say this official.

PS: I know i could just use standard h264 encoding, but i wanted to have small video size and i thought that ios will accecpt at least any format that is newer than h264.