w3c / w3c/webcodecs

Specify endianess of pcm samples

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#852 2 comments 2 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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HTML
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Description

In the wild, PCM can be in little endian or big endian. Because most of the time they come from RIFF files and RIFF files are little endian, implementations (certainly Firefox, probably Chrome?) have assumed little endian. RIFX files exist but are somewhat rare, that would be big endian RIFF files.

I propose that we standardize Web Codecs facilities to be little endian. We can always register new pcm types if a big endian ends up being needed.

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Research direction

Start by reviewing the Web Codecs PCM facilities and the RIFF/RIFX endian distinction described in the issue. Determine whether the specification should define little-endian samples and how that affects existing PCM types; done means the endian behavior is standardized or a new PCM type is clearly required.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
html
Domain
audio-video-rtc
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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