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Comment by thenewnewguy | Hacker News Reader

Somewhat off-topic rant, but why do websites display long videos as GIFs? Is there some size or compatibility benefit? Because it's really annoying to not be able to pause or rewind these GIFs that take the place of where a video would usually be.

Also, get an HTTPS certificate friend, it's 2019. Dreamhost provides LE certs literally for free.

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It's not great compression (The gif itself is about 600k) but these frames at least compress fairly well and produce pixel-perfect output which fits the pixely-game theme.

Pixel-perfect? The GIF looks compressed to me…

Gifs are lossless, ideal for pixelated low rez graphics. Video formats usually aren't.

H264 encoded video can be pretty good for screen recording too. What kills it is a lack of some browsers' support for YUV444. (Chrome works, Firefox doesn't, others I'm not sure) You really don't want YUV422 or YUV420 for screen capture of content mostly composed of small/fine colorful text.

> but why do websites display long videos as GIFs?

Because for GIF playback no need any video player plug-in in browser.

https://caniuse.com/#feat=video

Firefox already has the video player control interface for gifs; you just have to right-click.

HTTPS is unnecessary for this site.

> Firefox already has the video player control interface for gifs; you just have to right-click.

And do what? I'm using (latest stable) FF but nothing in the right click menu seems to allow me to control playback.

> HTTPS is unnecessary for this site.

A: HTTPS prevents your website from being defaced

B: I care about protecting the privacy of which websites and web pages I visit - even if you don't

C: The website hosts the author's PGP key

D: The more internet data is encrypted, the less encrypted data stands out. I.e., if you only encrypt data when it's important nobody listen, everyone can tell when you're doing something you don't want anyone to hear. If you encrypt data all the time, nobody can tell "secret" from "normal".

This! ^^^ (I know I should have something substantial to add, so: Everybody hear this, this is the reason for HTTPS Everywhere, all communications encrypted by default in all possible channels 24/7/365.)

> B: I care about protecting the privacy of which websites and web pages I visit - even if you don't

Then use a VPN and/or Tor and stop wailing on the author for no good reason.

Can you explain how either of those would "protect the privacy of which websites and web pages I visit"?

> HTTPS is unnecessary for this site.

The Great Cannon enjoys your continued support.

https://cybersecurity.att.com/blogs/labs-research/the-great-...

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