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Bug 25542 - [WebVTT] allowed format(s) for a WebVTT timestamp
Summary: [WebVTT] allowed format(s) for a WebVTT timestamp
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: TextTracks CG
Classification: Unclassified
Component: WebVTT (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: PC Linux
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: This bug has no owner yet - up for the taking
QA Contact: Web Media Text Tracks CG
URL:
Whiteboard: v1
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2014-05-04 17:22 UTC by Jason Ronallo
Modified: 2015-07-22 13:15 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:


Attachments

Description Jason Ronallo 2014-05-04 17:22:12 UTC
Based on the description of a WebVTT timestamp here
http://dev.w3.org/html5/webvtt/#dfn-webvtt-timestamp
I considered that all of the following ought to be valid timestamps for use in WebVTT cue timings:

00:22.000
22.000
10:34.000
634.000

I filed a issue against mozilla/vtt.js that it was not properly parsing WebVTT timestamp representing a time in seconds and fractions of a second here:
https://github.com/mozilla/vtt.js/issues/323

They have suggested that this might be a bug in this portion of the spec which doesn't seem to allow for parsing a "WebVTT timestamp representing a time in seconds and fractions of a second" like "634.000".
http://dev.w3.org/html5/webvtt/#dfn-collect-a-webvtt-timestamp

Are timestamps in the form of 634.000 (for 634 seconds) valid or is there a bug somewhere in the spec with regards to this?
Comment 1 Philip Jägenstedt 2014-05-04 21:00:40 UTC
(In reply to Jason Ronallo from comment #0)
> Based on the description of a WebVTT timestamp here
> http://dev.w3.org/html5/webvtt/#dfn-webvtt-timestamp
> I considered that all of the following ought to be valid timestamps for use
> in WebVTT cue timings:
> 
> 00:22.000
> 22.000
> 10:34.000
> 634.000

22.000 and 634.000 are not valid per the syntax, please let us know which part is not clear so that we can fix it.

> I filed a issue against mozilla/vtt.js that it was not properly parsing
> WebVTT timestamp representing a time in seconds and fractions of a second
> here:
> https://github.com/mozilla/vtt.js/issues/323
> 
> They have suggested that this might be a bug in this portion of the spec
> which doesn't seem to allow for parsing a "WebVTT timestamp representing a
> time in seconds and fractions of a second" like "634.000".
> http://dev.w3.org/html5/webvtt/#dfn-collect-a-webvtt-timestamp
> 
> Are timestamps in the form of 634.000 (for 634 seconds) valid or is there a
> bug somewhere in the spec with regards to this?

(In reply to Jason Ronallo from comment #0)
> Are timestamps in the form of 634.000 (for 634 seconds) valid or is there a
> bug somewhere in the spec with regards to this?

It's not valid per the syntax. The parsing is defined in http://dev.w3.org/html5/webvtt/#dfn-collect-a-webvtt-timestamp and it agrees with the syntax.
Comment 2 Jason Ronallo 2014-05-04 22:10:53 UTC
This section says that a WebVTT timestamp can be a "WebVTT timestamp representing a time in seconds and fractions of a second."
http://dev.w3.org/html5/webvtt/#dfn-webvtt-timestamp

Then this: http://dev.w3.org/html5/webvtt/#dfn-partial-webvtt-timestamp
"A WebVTT timestamp representing a time in seconds and fractions of a second is a WebVTT timestamp representing hours hours, minutes minutes, seconds seconds, and thousandths of a second seconds-frac." The description of how this is calculated suggests that it means something like 22.000 or 634.000 could be a valid timestamp.

And then a WebVTT cue timing (http://dev.w3.org/html5/webvtt/#dfn-webvtt-cue-timings) is made up of WebVTT timestamps.

If a WebVTT timestamp can be just seconds and fractions of a second in one description in the spec, then why is it not a valid timestamp for a part of a cue timing? So when you are to "Collect a WebVTT timestamp" the kind of timestamp defined as seconds and fractions of a second (http://dev.w3.org/html5/webvtt/#dfn-webvtt-timestamp) does not appear to work for these parsing steps.

If a "WebVTT timestamp representing a time in seconds and fractions of a second" is never valid as part of a cue timing, then why define it at all in the spec?
Comment 3 Silvia Pfeiffer 2014-05-05 08:10:50 UTC
Right. We allowed the syntax for specifying time to be either of the two, but did not add the parsing for it in http://dev.w3.org/html5/webvtt/#dfn-collect-a-webvtt-timestamp .
Comment 4 Philip Jägenstedt 2014-05-05 08:48:55 UTC
http://dev.w3.org/html5/webvtt/#dfn-partial-webvtt-timestamp is very strange. The definition is neither syntax nor parsing, just some rules about how to convert a floating point number into hours, minutes, seconds and seconds-frac.

Since "WebVTT timestamp representing a time in seconds and fractions of a second" isn't actually used anywhere I think it should simply be removed from the spec.
Comment 5 Silvia Pfeiffer 2015-06-28 12:14:40 UTC
See PR at https://github.com/w3c/webvtt/pull/203
Comment 6 Silvia Pfeiffer 2015-07-22 13:15:39 UTC
Patch landed