| Rich Mingin (PLUG) via plug on 27 Aug 2025 15:02:55 -0700 |
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| Re: [PLUG] other browsers |
On desktop, support is often spotty because HEVC/h.265 is a royalty-enabled compression, and neither Google (Chrome/Chromium) nor Mozilla (Firefox) want to be involved. They're both focusing more on AV1 support instead, since it provides pretty much all the benefits of HEVC and without MPEG-LA threatening your life and/or livelihood. (Well, Google likes VP9. Google owns VP9. Nobody else is very excited about it.) In the short term, it's pretty much out of end user control. In the longer term, watch for devices that emit AV1 instead; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1 On Wed, Aug 27, 2025 at 5:48 PM Keith via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote: > > On 8/27/25 16:36, Rich Mingin (PLUG) via plug wrote: > > Going to be pedantic for a second and point out that h.265 is the > > video standard and x265 is the FOSS codec implementation. That aside: > > > > https://caniuse.com/hevc > No prob... I'm pretty sure everyone knew the "265" was the important > point 🙂 > > To redeem my pedantry, I'll note that most of the mobile browsers have > > the note that it depends on hardware support. Mobile browsers, like > > desktop browsers, are finally getting to the point where they hand > > things like "decode a video" down to the OS level, as "play a sound" > > has done for a very long time. > > > > I don't know which "older Pixel phone" you have, but you mention > > avoiding "AI", and that was introduced with the Tensor G1 in the Pixel > > 6 in 2021. If your phone is older than that, you do not have "AI", but > > you also don't have any form of h.265 acceleration either. > > I have the 6. While there are some a.i. functions available (e.g. photo > processing... this was the first phone where they really started > promoting the camera and photo processing features), it's been pretty > easy to turn anything I've seen in an update off (e.g. Gemini). What > I'm concerned about this Google eventually not giving users the choice > so this is probably a good time to make the switch and de-Google some more. > > Video support was about non-mobile browsers. h.265 video plays fine > (accelerated or not) on the P6 and I'll review quick things with that. > When I get an alert for one camera and I want to check it, doing that on > mobile is fine. However, I don't care for Epiphany but it is far > easier to review a lot of footage or footage in a montage on a > computer. If there was another browser that had h.265 support AND was > more decoupled from Google, I would be interested in checking it out. > > > On Wed, Aug 27, 2025 at 2:07 PM Keith C. Perry via plug > > <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote: > >> I'm glad you guys bubbled up GrapheneOS. I have zero intention for be forced to use any of this a.i. stuff and it has kept me on an older pixel phone. My phone is is very good shape- even still hold a charge so I'm in a no rush to upgrade . Being able to install this on a Pixel 9 (and probably the 10 at some point) would make me very VERY happy. > >> > >> On the browser point. I've recently been using Ephiany since it natively support x265 video. All my video cams now record in that format so is a bit annoying to remember to do that when I'm not reviewing something on mobile. > >> > >> Do any of these browsers also support x265 video playback? > >> > >> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ > >> Keith C. Perry, MS E.E. > >> Managing Member, DAO Technologies LLC > >> (O) +1.215.525.4165 x2033 > >> (M) +1.215.432.5167 > >> [ http://www.daotechnologies.com/ | www.daotechnologies.com ] > >> > >> ----- Original Message ----- > >> From: "Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List" <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> > >> To: "Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List" <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> > >> Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2025 11:03:46 AM > >> Subject: Re: [PLUG] other browsers > >> > >> I have almost exactly the same setup as Rich, and it has worked really well. > >> > >> Having extensions on Ironfox on Android has been nice too, although I used Vanadium 90% of the time. Graphene has been pretty easy to work with, although I did buy a refurbished pixel in order to run it as designed. > >> > >> The other browser I like is Mullvad Browser-- particularly for when I know sites do heavy tracking and fingerprinting. When you launch it, it will check for updates automatically too. > >> > >> > >> On Wednesday, August 27th, 2025 at 2:45 PM, Rich Freeman via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote: > >> > >>> > >>> Haven't heard of these, but lately I've been going down two roads. > >>> > >>> For my primary browsers I'm using Librewolf on Desktop, and IronFox on > >>> Android. Both are privacy-focused browsers with full support for > >>> uBlock/etc. Note that Librewolf doesn't auto-update as is intended to > >>> be used with a package manager (eg any Linux or Chocolatey on Windows). > >>> > >>> For things that require a chromium-based browser I'm currently using > >>> Brave on Desktop and Vanadium on Android. > >>> > >>> I use floccus to sync bookmarks across all of these (they're stored in > >>> Nextcloud). > >>> > >>> The thing that pushed me off of Chromium for normal use is the API > >>> changes that would kill uBlock. There is a version that is compatible > >>> with the new API, but it is much less functional (which was probably a > >>> design goal with the API change). My understanding is that more > >>> privacy-oriented browsers are trying to preserve the old API, but it > >>> remains to be seen how long that lasts once upstream chromium drops it > >>> and they're maintaining forks. The performance drop with the mozilla > >>> engine is very annoying, but worth it for regular use. I am mostly > >>> using chromium for sites that use webgl/etc and usually tracking > >>> cookies/etc aren't as much of an issue on those. > >>> > >>> I used to be content to let Google run my life, but honestly things are > >>> trending such that I'm trying to reduce my dependencies there. I'm now > >>> running GrapheneOS (though I still use some Google services, sandboxed), > >>> and using Nextcloud for just about everything but calendar/map > >>> (documents, contacts, bookmarks, photos). I'm not entirely where I want > >>> to be but I'm taking my time with it. If people want to chat about this > >>> topic in a meeting I'd be interested in it. I was inspired a bit by a > >>> SELF talk a year ago. > >>> > >>> Rich > >>> > >>> On 8/26/2025 4:14 PM, jeffv via plug wrote: > >>> > >>>> Just found this - Zen. It's FF with a major front end change. Vert > >>>> tabs- not my favorite. You might like it. > >>>> https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/08/zen-browser-is-what-mozilla-firefox-should-be > >>>> > >>>> Min - just the minimum and very fast accordingly. Chromium-based. Not > >>>> too much in the way of security configuration. > >>>> https://minbrowser.org/ > >>>> > >>>> Midori Next Generation: FF-based. Very fast. > >>>> https://astian.org/midori-browser/ > >>>> ___________________________________________________________________________ > >>>> > >>>> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org > >>>> Announcements - > >>>> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > >>>> General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > >>> > >>> -- > >>> Rich > >>> > >>> ___________________________________________________________________________ > >>> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org > >>> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > >>> General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > >> ___________________________________________________________________________ > >> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org > >> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > >> General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > >> ___________________________________________________________________________ > >> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org > >> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > >> General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > > ___________________________________________________________________________ > > Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org > > Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > > General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > > -- > ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ > Keith C. Perry, MS E.E. > Managing Member, DAO Technologies LLC > (O) +1.215.525.4165 x2033 > (M) +1.215.432.5167 > www.daotechnologies.com > > ___________________________________________________________________________ > Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org > Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug