default wrote:
On Tue, 20 Nov 2018 23:46:15 -0700, "Bill in Co"
surly_curmudgeon@earthlink wrote:

Anybody else lamenting the waning of the mp4 file format as an almost
defacto standard on the web (and elsewhere)? Why?

Well, for one, most of the tools we had for working on these files are
now useless, like tools to mux and demux the file, cut and edit the
file, etc. All those programs... I can't tell you how many times such
mp4 tools have come in handy for working with mp4 video files, like for
cleaning up and restoring the audio tracks from some Youtube clips, as
just one example (and boy do some of them need some work).

And two, and perhaps of more importance to most people, many TV sets
won't even play these new video formats - unlike the mp4 files. Sure,
they can still play mpg files, but that's pretty limiting, to say the
least!

But I'll have to concede that mp4 was proprietary format, unlike webm and
its vp9 video codec, so here we are, whether we want it or not. I still
think it sucks. :-)

Know what you are on about...

Makes a lot more sense to buy a dumb TV then just get a TV stick/box
that can be replaced when the standards change than relying on the TV
maker to put out an update.

I was reading somewhere that some 60% of people with smart TV's also
own TV sticks so they can use the apps that the TV manufacturer
doesn't offer.

I don't have a smart TV, and skipped getting one, because I figured the Roku
would give me more flexibility, in part for the reasons you just mentioned.
However, this Samsung TV, which is just a few years old, has *native* mp4
capability built in, so when I select USB, it reads the plugged in USB flash
drive, and shows all my mp4 folders and files just like a windows explorer
interface, so then I can click on any one of them and play the mp4 file. I
don't know how many other TV manufacturers have built that capability into
their TV sets, but I'm guessing this is more the exception than the rule, at
least for mp4 (video) files.