Authoring Tools for open media codecs

1. Why people just use flash

• lack of good tools to create Ogg or SVG is the biggest problem - flash authoring tools are just good and work
• there is not an easy way to export flash from an application, or from javascript
• Adobe's dominance in swf/flash video is just as monopolistic as MS's dominance in word documents
• success of gnash and swfdec is actually a problem for the spread of open formats, but their implementation is simpler and builds into an existing environment

2. The Web browser as a video editor

Demo of latest authoring in metavid (Michael)

• use of SMIL for e.g. xfade
  • gets interpreted by javascript and transferred into css e.g. opacity change over time
  • javascript does not natively have a concept of time, but it may be an idea of a good extension to javascript
  • there is a webkit extension for transitions - see if it could be helpful
• also SMIL-like resource description as EDL
• multi-track video using ROE
  • each resource can have multiple underlying files, e.g. low/high quality video, different text tracks

Demo of firefogg in wikimedia (Michael)

• video is transcoded before upload
• use the upload API provided by the firefogg plugin
• new asset selection interface in wikimedia, also from different repositories

Discussion of client-side video editing:

• only can be played back in the browser
• is only dynamically rendered, not for posterity/sharing
• requires an export to create the new resource; e.g. pitivi could be used to export it
• Web based authoring is not for professional video editors

2. Server-side video editing

Demo if ics (Robin):

• transitions are rendered on the server
• EDL creates the video

Discussion of server-side video editing:

• closer toward the final edited resource
• still requires interpretation of an EDL and export

3. Open video editors

• Off-line native Ogg video editing tools required, which can be the corporate "standard"
• command-line tools like avidemux, ffmpeg are not usable for "normal" users
• state of open source video editors is immature - pitivi, diva, cinelerra, lumiera and kino at least work together
• main issue is having Ogg Theora as an accepted export format - pitivi has it as the default export format
• it would be important to also have commercial software (e.g. iMovie) natively export to Ogg Theora
• using XiphQT? for iMovie, oggcodecs for MS MovieMaker? may already be possible, but getting ogg export into professional video tools as an export format is much harder (avid, final cut pro, etc.)
• support for a professional production workflow is necessary - we should explain how to do a professional production workflow with Ogg

Short-term goal:

• identify things that people do in professional production workflows, which parts are covered with open formats, which aren't
• also identify little processes that can be done in Ogg and explain how

 - e.g. here's how you can do your own private youtube using Ogg
 - e.g. here's how to create a screencast in Ogg
 - e.g. here's how to edit a set of videos in Ogg
 - e.g. default settings for media applications
 -> could be added to floss manuals http://flossmanuals.net/

• making the Web video editing software also export Ogg Theora files, e.g. using pitivi

Mid-term goal:

• eventually, Ogg needs to become a file format that is too big to ignore

 - content: use of it in archive.org and wikimedia is great, but we need more
 - video editor/tool support online and offline is another great step
 - sort out license issues
 - try to get Ogg a de-facto baseline codec for HTML5?