Unsung's Cursed Knowledge
5 hours ago
- #browser quirks
- #video encoding
- #web development
- Emails still don't support inline videos in 2026.
- RSS readers sanitize HTML inconsistently, making inline videos tricky; some require wrapping videos in <a> links, which can override playback controls in other readers.
- QuickTime Player's 'New Movie Recording' (not 'New Screen Recording') can record from USB-connected iPhones or Apple TVs over Wi-Fi.
- Videos with full 8-bit transparency require different encoding for Safari vs. Chrome.
- Browsers don't allow checking video framerate due to fingerprinting concerns, so metadata must be passed from elsewhere.
- Simultaneous video playback can slow down or crash browsers, especially on mobile, as browsers may not properly garbage collect or throttle.
- Videos sometimes have subtle borders due to decoders rounding width/height to multiples of 8px or 16px; fixing this is unreliable for small videos.
- Pixel density in images can be stored in centimeters, leading to conversions like 143.99ppi instead of 144ppi.
- On smartphones, click events have pointerType 'click' on iPhone but 'touch' on Pixel Phone.
- CSS lacks easy ways to create responsive images with consistent aspect ratio and min/max widths without using object-position, which complicates side-by-side layouts; manual aspect ratio calculations are often needed.
- CSS word-wrapping syntax is messy and doesn't cover all cases, requiring manual insertion of zero-width spaces (e.g., for URLs); it's hard to control breaks precisely.
- You still need to specify -webkit-user-select: none; alongside user-select: none; for full compatibility.