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WebM Labs release

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As you have probably already heard, yesterday Opera released a Labs build with WebM support. You can find out more details in our Labs announcement, Opera dev article or Philip Jägenstedt's blog post (Philip leads our HTML5 video effort).

This post is provided to give you all a place to share your thoughts on this historic announcement. However as always, stay on topic. Comments should be about video support (specifically WebM video support). Remember that Labs releases are not snapshots, they serve to demonstrate new and ground breaking features we are working on. That said, they still are not meant for regular usage, since they do share the same potential for serious bugs as the snapshots do.

EDIT: We have made a small tweak to the Linux packages so that they should work on a wider range of distros. If WebM wasn't working for you before please re-download the package and try again.

Lots of little fixes can result in a big improvementFonts, usability, widgets ... Oh my!

Comments

Zimak Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:16:36 AM

testing...

Ruarí Ødegaardruario Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:23:31 AM

P.S. See also the Choose Opera blog post for further comments from users and also the thread in the Beta forum.

Abhishek ThakurAbhishek9102 Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:24:17 AM

up

DeleteOneginUA Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:24:31 AM

why 21868 bild ??? if last 10.54 bild 3390 !

Abhishek ThakurAbhishek9102 Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:28:10 AM

Originally posted by OneginUA:

why 21868 bild ??? if last 10.54 bild 3390 !


Because its a labs build separate from 10.5x branch.

alexey-u Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:28:34 AM

YouTube works ok! It's really cool!

But it obviously must have a video download indicator to be able to replace flash version.

Thank you! Hope you will add this feature before release will be made:)

hurug Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:28:49 AM

Tkanks Devs. Testing already.

cyberdude mminicyberdude Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:29:26 AM

thanks for giving us new snapshot.....though late:lol: lol lol

berend ytsmaytsmabeer Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:30:03 AM

Originally posted by minicyberdude:

thanks for giving us new snapshot.....though late:lol:


It's no snapshot, it's an labs release

i4u1 Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:34:00 AM

And when the "true" new snapshot will be?

Ruarí Ødegaardruario Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:37:22 AM

@Linux users: Just to clarify, the "Ubuntu" label on the Linux builds reflects the fact that due to tight time scales we did not have time to test a full range of distros. It works in recent Ubuntu and I can confirm having tested it myself that it works in Archlinux. However there is an issue with some Debian based distros. My advice would be to try it and see if it works for you.

The easiest way to run this is to run it 'in place', i.e.

$ tar xf opera-10.54-21867-webm.i386.linux.tar.bz2
$ opera-10.54-21867-webm.i386.linux/opera &

If you really want to use your main profile (which is not at all recommended but your final choice), change that last line to:

$ opera-10.54-21867-webm.i386.linux/opera -pd ~/.opera &


Alternatively, you can use the included install script to install it but we would then recommend that you install with a suffix to allow it to run alongside your main install.

Rafał MiłeckiZajec Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:37:29 AM

Using Linux I get "Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video formats available." on Youtube.

If so you, check console output. I noticed "undefined symbol: g_realloc_n" and "version `GLIBC_2.11' not found".

You have to have glibc 2.11 installed, in case of openSUSE 11.2 it's glibc 2.10.

Ruarí Ødegaardruario Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:39:12 AM

Originally posted by Zajec:

You have to have glibc 2.11 installed.

This is the issue in my previous comment about not working on all distros. It'll be fixed but unfortunately for now you will not be able to test, sorry.

cyberdude mminicyberdude Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:42:28 AM

Originally posted by ytsmabeer:

It's no snapshot, it's an labs release



ohh.....ok...so when will the new snapshot come out?

Florin IacobMastema Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:49:23 AM

How will this relate to the snapshots? Will the next snapshot(s) include this functionality?

Ruarí Ødegaardruario Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:49:59 AM

Originally posted by Mastema:

Will the next snapshot(s) include this functionality?

Not the next one but support will appear once we have done a little bit more work to stabilise things.

@all: please, enough comments about when new snapshots will be released. They don't have a fixed time scale for when they come out. Now back on topic please.

Ruarí Ødegaardruario Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:53:01 AM

Originally posted by elfsander:

Doesn't work on youtube (Win7 X64) still getting the flash videos (yes I enabled youtube.com/html5)

Not all videos are transcoded to WebM format yet so for all others (the vast majority) you will get the Flash version. Test with the examples we linked to in the Labs and Dev articles.

berend ytsmaytsmabeer Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:54:58 AM

Originally posted by elfsander:

Doesn't work on youtube (Win7 X64) still getting the flash videos (yes I enabled youtube.com/html5)


Does work but you'll have o do

1. Search for a video by keyword. For example, trailers.
2. In the browser’s address bar, add &webm=1 to the end of the URL. For example, http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=trailers&aq=f&webm=1.
3. Press Enter.

hcym Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:10:15 AM

really cool

idea

OperaDrBruce Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:17:19 AM

Originally posted by ruario:

@all: please, enough comments about when new snapshots will be released. They don't have a fixed time scale for when they come out. Now back on topic please.


BecDeXorbin Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:20:36 AM

VP8 pretty much sucks ass: http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/?p=377

Rafał MiłeckiZajec Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:30:35 AM

Originally posted by ruario:

t about not working on all distros. It'll be fixed but unfortunately for now you will not be able to test, sorry.

Sure, it's OK. Just wanted to let other ppl know issue smile Some may want to try update glibc.

Rafał MiłeckiZajec Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:32:02 AM

Originally posted by BecDeXorbin:

VP8 pretty much sucks ass: http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/?p=377


Please, read http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2010-May/047795.html as well. It's not sooo bad and there is place for real improvements.

SteveKong Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:32:27 AM

I'd like to know whether Opera sees any patent issues with WebM and Theora, as some others do.

Trizenxxswampxx Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:37:14 AM

Working fine here (Arch Linux), but 720p is not working so well.. (tested on Opera 10.50 YouTube video)

Romanfeil0ng Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:40:21 AM

Originally posted by Zajec:

If so you, check console output. I noticed "undefined symbol: g_realloc_n" and "version `GLIBC_2.11' not found".




hm.. same for me on debian lenny sad

waiting ...
(works in chrome 6 from dev channel whistle )

arekm Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:42:22 AM

Originally posted by Zajec:

g_realloc_n


It's from glib and not glibc. So you also need new glib.

MaxFragg Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:42:30 AM

arg @AnuaR Sh LABS != Snapshots/Desktoptream 2 branches with different goals.

nice build, works quite well on ubuntu 10.04 /x86

harcalion Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:45:02 AM

Performance is not good at all (with Elephant's dream video sample). About 65% CPU. Better for Adriana Lima's video, about 30%. Room for improvement... yes, I think so.

Specs: Windows 7 x64 (Intel E6600)
Geforce GTS 250 (I doubt it's GPU-accelerated but even so).

But, again, thanks for an alternative to H.264.

Шуйский Николай [krigstask, Ŝtérkrìg]Sterkrig Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:47:56 AM

How it would be implemented in mainline Opera? I mean, on *nix Opera can play every format Gstreamer supports, so WebM support is really a question of writing a plugin, pushing it to mainline and then to major distros. Am I right?

netwolf Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:49:36 AM

Originally posted by Rafał Miłecki:

It's not sooo bad and there is place for real improvements.


What makes me worry a bit is that Google calls the specs 'final'.
This makes any real improvments to the core/codec pretty hard I'm afraid...

ot: I understand the lab builds are from a different branch, but what build are they based on? Latest snapshot build? Any other changes?

eliotcougar Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:50:46 AM

I've tried it yesterday... Be careful, the installer does seem to ignore "Use as default browser" and "Place icon on Desktop" options... I had to uninstall it very soon and restore 10.53 installation in Repair mode, not sure it works properly now...

I hope VP8 encoder/decoder will be more "developed" when it reach version 1.0.0... And only then it should be widely used to convert old videos and encode new ones... Right now it gives noticeably worse quality than H264 and noticeably lower encode/decode speed... Current encoder skips frames and breaks some videos... Moreover, current HTML5-Video implementation lacks a lot of "definitely-must-have" features (Fullscreen, better seeking, streaming, subtitles and so on... Some already present in YouTube flash video-player)...

I know, the society (especially iPad fans) urge for open video on the net, but if you will release incomplete, bugged, crashing piece of software again (like it was with Opera 10.5) it will be epic fail... Don't hurry with the release, users should have patience...
And Google should perfect their WebM standard along with VP8 encoder/decoder before they will be included in "All Modern Browsers"...

Anyway, WebM support looks quite safe to be included in weekly Opera 10.54+ snapshots, not only in labs builds... It's tricky to have them installed alongside... The actual code associated with WebM is triggered only on video elements which are not widespread enough to cause problems for regular users...

I vote for GStreamer update in weekly builds... smile

apass Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:53:41 AM

I'm not liking the feel of the youtube html5 video player
1)The video doesn't pause & buffer on a slow network
2)Instead it plays like a video slideshow
3)No download progress bar

nimu_channimuchan Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:57:27 AM

bigeyes love

eliotcougar Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:58:47 AM

Originally posted by apass:

I'm not liking the feel of the DEFAULT/preview-stage/tech-demo/incomplete/for-demonstration-purposes youtube html5 video player
1)The video doesn't pause & buffer on a slow network
2)Instead it plays like a video slideshow
3)No download progress bar


A lot of features (not all) could be implemented using just a bunch of JavaScript code, a bit of CSS3 and some SVG or Canvas elements... Customization looks even easier than in Flash...

ouzowtfouzoWTF Thursday, May 20, 2010 11:01:52 AM

timeshifting in a YT video is ignored when 720p is activated

JaredpieRr0Ur Thursday, May 20, 2010 11:23:57 AM

Yep, saw this one on Choose Opera.

figarofigarofigaro Thursday, May 20, 2010 11:33:56 AM

I was thinking that RC linux has come...

So with this webM thing stable release for linux is going to postponed like 6 months, maybe more....

There were 3 stable realeses for windows of 10.5x, and at the same time none for linux...

bhelyer Thursday, May 20, 2010 11:35:00 AM

I am running Karmic, and the builds don't work for me either (they run, but video doesn't work with the GLIBC_2_11 issue that everyone else has had), so you should probably mark the builds as '10.04' only, as that's how it appears to be (at least age wise)

Ruarí Ødegaardruario Thursday, May 20, 2010 12:17:45 PM

Originally posted by figarofigarofigaro:

So with this webM thing stable release for linux is going to postponed like 6 months, maybe more....

This has zero effect on how soon a Linux stable comes out. The developers working on video are not the same ones working on desktop UNIX.

Ruarí Ødegaardruario Thursday, May 20, 2010 12:18:35 PM

Originally posted by bhelyer:

I am running Karmic, and the builds don't work for me either (they run, but video doesn't work with the GLIBC_2_11 issue that everyone else has had), so you should probably mark the builds as '10.04' only, as that's how it appears to be (at least age wise)

Yes you are correct. This will only work on bleeding edge distros at the moment.

FedericoRyomaNagare Thursday, May 20, 2010 12:29:05 PM

testing on youtube @720p getting 134% cpu ussage. 2.56 13" macbook pro with 9400M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0dE23jVLXw

also did not find the full screen button
also also otherwise is working ok.

Daniel HendrycksDanielHendrycks Thursday, May 20, 2010 12:51:24 PM

All works fine, hope the snapshots after the upcoming one keep including WebM.

Kirilo81 Thursday, May 20, 2010 12:57:51 PM

The built works on OpenSuse 11.3 (which has glibc 2.11), but it doesn't play anything (you just see the html5 loading indication).

On the console I get the same output as for the non-working flash video:

opera: Plug-in 9312 is not responding. It will be closed.
opera: Define environment variable OPERA_KEEP_BLOCKED_PLUGIN to keep blocked plug-ins.

Charlie ClarkMuzzlehatch Thursday, May 20, 2010 1:18:21 PM

Congratulations to all involved. Kudos to Opera for introducing the

Ruarí Ødegaardruario Thursday, May 20, 2010 2:02:42 PM

Originally posted by Kirilo81:

opera: Plug-in 9312 is not responding. It will be closed.

opera: Define environment variable OPERA_KEEP_BLOCKED_PLUGIN to keep blocked plug-ins.

You must have Flash or some other plugin running as well. That error comes from the plugin wrapper which is not used by opera for WebM content. It is likely unrelated to your problems of running WebM content.

F.V.F-V Thursday, May 20, 2010 2:03:35 PM

My major concern about the UI side of Opera's

Galnospoke Thursday, May 20, 2010 2:03:44 PM

Only Theora? Not h264? Nonsense. It is worse then Flash.

Ruarí Ødegaardruario Thursday, May 20, 2010 2:13:04 PM

Originally posted by Galnospoke:

Only Theora? Not h264?

not only theora. Theora and WebM/VP8.

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