Hi everyone. I normally don't bother talking about UI3 releases here anymore, but I just released UI3-181 with a new video player option. It uses "WebCodecs" which is a brand new web API that gives low-level access to the video decoders, just like I've wanted for only about a decade. It is currently only available in Chrome/Edge and related browsers, but should be coming to Firefox later.
The only problem is, the Chrome developers decided to restrict its use to only web sites that are hosted with HTTPS. This is impractical for Blue Iris because HTTPS isn't supported natively by the web server yet. But even if and when HTTPS support is baked in to Blue Iris, you still have to deal with certificate trust issues. That means either you install and regularly renew a trusted TLS certificate, which requires internet access and port forwarding, otherwise you use a self-signed certificate and have to click through a browser warning page every day on every device you use for UI3. Both of these are a major nuisance, the latter of which would create a lot of confusion among users who haven't encountered the "untrusted certificate" warnings before.
So I opened an issue with the team that created the WebCodecs API, asking them to remove the HTTPS requirement. But I am worried they will not care about a bunch of lunatics that want to use unencrypted HTTP for their own local web servers.
If any Chrome/Edge/etc users out there have a github account and want to be able to use the best performing video player in UI3, please leave a comment in the issue thread to show that people want this: Here is the issue thread
The only problem is, the Chrome developers decided to restrict its use to only web sites that are hosted with HTTPS. This is impractical for Blue Iris because HTTPS isn't supported natively by the web server yet. But even if and when HTTPS support is baked in to Blue Iris, you still have to deal with certificate trust issues. That means either you install and regularly renew a trusted TLS certificate, which requires internet access and port forwarding, otherwise you use a self-signed certificate and have to click through a browser warning page every day on every device you use for UI3. Both of these are a major nuisance, the latter of which would create a lot of confusion among users who haven't encountered the "untrusted certificate" warnings before.
So I opened an issue with the team that created the WebCodecs API, asking them to remove the HTTPS requirement. But I am worried they will not care about a bunch of lunatics that want to use unencrypted HTTP for their own local web servers.
If any Chrome/Edge/etc users out there have a github account and want to be able to use the best performing video player in UI3, please leave a comment in the issue thread to show that people want this: Here is the issue thread
