A key factor in the web’s success is that its core technologies such as HTML, HTTP, TCP/IP, etc. are open and freely implementable. Though video is also now core to the web experience, there is unfortunately no open and free video format that is on par with the leading commercial choices.
VP8, a high-quality video codec is released today under a BSD-style, royalty-free license at http://www.webmproject.org/. The WebM project is dedicated to developing a high-quality, open video format for the web that is freely available to everyone. The WebM launch is supported by Mozilla, Opera, Google and more than forty other publishers, software and hardware vendors. WebM consists of VP8 video, Vorbis audio and simplified Matroska file format. Check out what Mozilla, Opera, Google Chrome, Adobe, and many others below have to say about the importance of WebM to the future of web video. WebM is very promising technology. Google grants a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this section) patent license. Google’s YouTube already support both the video tag in HTML5 and either the h.264 video codec or the WebM format (with VP8 codec).
There are still some downsides. VP8 Is Not As Good As H.264, On2′s Quality Claims Unfounded. Even if VP8 is worse than H.264, being patent-free is still a useful attribute for obvious reasons. According to The first in-depth technical analysis of VP8 says that the problem of patents could be rearing its ugly head again because is simply way too similar to H.264, almost like “H.264 Baseline Profile with a better entropy coder”.
4 Comments
Slow Computer columbus says:
It’s strange to find out how many sites the internet has about this subject. I don’t know if I’m ever going to need to come back, but it is awesome to know I found the one that offers a lot of practical info if this comes up for me another time
tomi says:
There is RSS feed you can follow. Check the feed links on the bottom of the page and subscribe button on the right.
Tomi says:
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/31/0257214/Free-H264-a-Precursor-To-WebM-Patent-War
“The MPEG LA seem unwilling to explain why they have extended their ‘free’ H.264 streaming video policy now. This article unpacks the history of MPEG LA and then suggests the obvious — it’s all because of WebM — and the worrying — maybe it’s preparing the ground for opening a third front in the patent war against Google.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mozilla Debates Supporting H.264 In Firefox Via System Codecs
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/03/13/2027215/mozilla-debates-supporting-h264-in-firefox-via-system-codecs
Adoption of the HTML5 video element has been hampered by the lack of a universal video format that is supported in all browsers. Mozilla previously rejected the popular H.264 video codec because it is patent-encumbered and would require implementors to pay royalty fees. The organization is now rethinking its position and is preparing to add support for H.264 video decoding in mobile Firefox via codecs that are provided by the underlying operating system or hardware.