Status of "Sourcing In-band Media Resource Tracks from Media Containers into HTML"

[chrisn]

The Sourcing In-band Media Resource Tracks from Media Containers into HTML (spec, GitHub) was produced by the Media Resource In-band Tracks CG. It describes mappings from audio and video tracks in media containers to the AudioTrack and VideoTrack HTML APIs, and how to parse VTT or TTML cues from media files and expose via the TextTrack API.

This document is referenced (normatively) from the HTML spec, but is an unofficial draft, and it's not clear which parts of this document are implemented in the main browser engines.

It would be good to turn this into a normative document - at least, for the parts that are actually implemented.

• Can anyone provide insight into which parts of this document are implemented?
• Is anyone interested in maintaining this document?
• If so, which group should do this work, given the Media Resource In-band Tracks CG is inactive. For example, TTWG, or Media WG?

This issue is prompted by some recent discussions:

• The Byte Stream Format for CMAF document produced by CTA WAVE, which defines the CMAF byte streams and is proposed to be included in the MSE Byte Stream Format Registry, recommends updating Sourcing In-band Media Resource Tracks from Media Containers into HTML
• Media Capabilities API discussion on whether include capability detection for text tracks
• The DataCue API proposal recommends updating it to define inband event mappings, e.g., from ISO BMFF or CMAF containers

[chrisn]

In w3c/webmediaapi#301 (comment), @JohnRiv noticed that the Sourcing In-band Media Resource Tracks spec URL now returns a 404.

@plehegar Is this a temporary issue or should we find a new home for the spec?

[JohnRiv]

@plehegar can you help provide direction on if there will be a new URL to reference the spec, or is it officially discontinued and should no longer be referenced?

[chrisn]

Perhaps @ashimura or @tidoust may also be able to help.

[tidoust]

I raised that with the W3C systems team. I think that's unintended. A redirect rule was added two months ago to redirect all HTML pages that used to be under https://dev.w3.org/html5/ to the HTML spec at WHATWG, which makes sense for all pages except for the Sourcing In-band Media Resource Tracks spec.

As noted by @chrisn at the beginning of this issue, the spec is an unofficial draft developed in a community group. It cannot be officially discontinued by W3C because it does not officially exist...

[JohnRiv]

As noted by @chrisn at the beginning of this issue, the spec is an unofficial draft developed in a community group. It cannot be officially discontinued by W3C because it does not officially exist...

That is an excellent point 😄

Keep us posted on if/where the unofficial draft will land.

[tidoust]

Keep us posted on if/where the unofficial draft will land.

Done, we're back to the unofficial draft status ;)

Note you may need to refresh your browser cache to have it forget the previous redirect immediately (it's a bit of pain since we're talking about a redirect, the easiest way is probably to load the page with dev tools open).

[JohnRiv]

Thanks @tidoust!

[plehegar]

Arriving late in this thread, sorry.

If the document is no longer relevant, an issue should be sent to the HTML spec to remove the reference.

If the document is still technically relevant, we should look for a home for it imho, within or outside W3C. Relaying on a discontinued server at W3C seems madness. At first glance, it seems the Media WG at W3C should be convinced to take it on at their next chartering phase.

[chrisn]

Thanks @plehegar, the document is relevant. I raised this issue to gather interest and find it a new home, Media WG the most likely.