Since Safari 12 accepts now VP8 codec, we decided to use VP8 codec for webrtc video chat.
We dropped H264 codec and decided to go for Vp8. This Vp8 codec works with all modern browsers:
For now, we only used H264 to support Safari.
Unfortunately H264 is very old codec and has some big drawbacks:
Vp8 has all qualities except.. it is not supported on Safari.
You can choose the codec selection form the config/webcam chatadmin panel
What about Microsoft Edge ?
Forget Edge compatibility for now, since Edge will be based on Chromium from early 2019 and thus will have vp8
Notice that we will add new vp9 soon that will increase quality of video. Of course Vp9 is not supported by safari.
Notice that soon, all majors browsers should adopt AV1, that will end the war between all these codecs.
We just added TURN server to out webrtc version.
The goal is to make the traversal of NAT easier for systems behind firewalls and routers (allow port 3478)
The other interesting feature is to make the chat more compatible on IOS and Safari: Safari rules for webrtc are:
“You cannot play webrtc if you don’t publish yourself”
which is very blocking for conferences sessions or just to watch videos without having to allow access to its own webcam.
Thanks to Turn server, we can now bypass that Safari and IOS rule.
that’s a great news: HTML5 supports both: Flash and Webrtc : you can choose that feature from your chatadmin panel.
Each technology has pros and cons:
Flash is used for streaming – that means ONLY flash based devices could stream. However all devices can watch the video.
Those with flash have real time video. Those without use HLS and have about 5 seconds of delay.
Webrtc is used for both streaming and playing. This technology is for now ONLY supported by chrome and Firefox browser.
It also works on Android.
Quality is superior to flash. It also includes a better echo cancellation algorithm.
However the latest Safari11 and IOS11 webrtc support is insufficient. Safari uses the old H264 codec. Besides, teh IOS webrtc support uses and old API