Correct. Progressive MP4 also do the trick. Many open-source tool such as ffmpeg (generalist), gpac (specialized in this and leveraging ffmpeg), etc. in the area.
> I've heard from colleagues that this won't be possible with DASH due to the switch to fMP4 format.
That's incorrect. With DASH the latency depends on the fragment duration, not the segment duration. You can start sending the segment when its first fragment is generated, and use chunk-based HTTP transfer as mentioned in other comments.
That's mostly partial acceleration. Chips now support a lot of codecs. And aside H264/AVC chips makers cannot afford to use so much hardware surface for codecs that are not so popular.
You're right, I meant "contributors". It is not only a question of money: these companies can dedicate people to lead the standardization tasks and push their own interests. That's mostly visible at MPEG with patents (yet another hot subject).
Standards are very important. But the way we make them is still highly improvable.
Agreed. That's one of the reason why this initiative stalls. However the back idea is to standardize a DRM protocol that would be accepted by the copyright owners and that's a step in the right direction.