A Blog From Behind the Trenches

The WebM project announced today that WebM support will be available in IE9 without having to use a browser plugin. While it won't be supported by default, IE9 will support the codec as long as it's available as a Windows system codec.

And just to clarify: This means that this is not just another browser plugin like Flash, but rather allows IE9 to support WebM through the HTML5 <video> element.

The inevitable question here is how this is any better than using a browser plugin, and the answer is this avoids all the limitations of browser plugins. It opens up a whole new world of possibilities, since HTML5 video can be accessed and manipulated by the browser. A browser plugin, on the other hand, is basically a "black box" to the browser. It doesn't offer even a fraction of the flexibility you get with native HTML5 video (video support in the browser itself).

As I explained in a previous blog post on the subject, this will deal another blow to the closed H.264 codec on the desktop.

So for now, I think we can ignore the hilariously hypocritical quip about "ideology" in the Microsoft blog post, and congratulate them on doing the right thing instead!

John Gruber seems to be really upset about WebM. Really, really, really upset.

In fact, in his last post, he seems to be trying to ridicule the FSF for supporting WebM, and allegedly misunderstanding the difference between standards and freedom.

Read more...

The discussion on Google's decision to remove H.264 from Chrome is still raging, and an argument that is brought up a lot is market adoption.

Now, the primary video to serve video on the web today is Flash. It doesn't really matter which codec it's using because it's played through Flash anyway. But what about native HTML5 video support? Which format will have the widest support in the market?

Read more...

In news that's almost too good to be true (still waiting for a retraction, but hoping that it won't come), Google just announced that they will remove support for the patent-encumbered H.264 codec from Chrome:

Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.

There are already comments in their blog criticizing the decision, but these people do not seem to realize what great news this is for the open web. After all, the web needs to based on open standards, not patent-encumbered technologies. H.264 was threatening to hold back parts of the web like Internet Explorer did before it.

With Google's powerful and well-oiled advertising machinery backing it and ensuring its growth, Chrome will now contribute to a true open web. Along with Opera and Firefox, we may soon find that the majority of the browser market supports open formats like WebM and Theora, while H.264 supporting browsers will make up a smaller and smaller part of the market.

Great move, Google. Mad props, as they say.

Opera, Mozilla and Google have just announced WebM - high-quality free and open video for the Web!

WebM uses VP8 for video, Vorbis for audio, and the Matroska container format.

That's right. Google decided to open the On2 VP8 codec, and share it with the rest of the world. They joined forces with Opera and Mozilla to bring it to a browser near you, and now it's ready for testing!

You can grab your copy of Opera with WebM support, and actually try it out at YouTube!

Google is throwing its weight behind WebM, and has countless content, hardware and software partners lined up. This is truly an industry-changing event, as until now the Web seemed to be moving towards lockdown with H.264 looking at complete dominance over online video.

With the world's most popular browsers and the world's most popular video site pushing WebM, it will truly make a difference.