No common video codec for HTML5

Matt Lincoln Russell (Lincoln)

July 1, 2009 4:47 PM ET in News, , , , , , , ,

The goal was to have a single video codec present in every major browser. This would allow web developers to include <video> elements without worrying about plugins or browser compatability. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like that will happen, with browser makers split between H.264 and Ogg Theora.

The quick version: Apple won’t use Ogg Theora because of hardware comparability and patent exposure, Opera won’t use H.264 because of cost, and Mozilla won’t use H.264 because of licensing restrictions. Microsoft won’t use H.264 for the same reason as Mozilla, but also hasn’t commented on supporting <video> at all. Google will support both Theora and H.264 in Chrome, but Chromium won’t have the latter because of licensing. Also, Theora isn’t up to snuff for YouTube’s volume.

Ian Hickson, reasonably, says that forcing Theora into the HTML5 spec won’t convince Apple to get on board, and all the others will do it anyway. Therefore, no codec will be officially specified in HTML5. The hope is that over time, one of the two formats will become the de facto standard.

Sigh.

11 Comments:

  1. Thrax
    1 Jul '09, 8:55 pm

    H.264 is a nice codec, but the MPEG does attach significant licensing restrictions.

    Theora is definitely the better codec for this purpose, particularly because of its licensing scheme. It's a shame that Apple has such a heavy hand in the future of Webkit.

  2. UPSLynx
    1 Jul '09, 10:06 pm

    This is beyond frustrating.

    With the amount of video content on the internet today, there is no reason companies shouldn't be pursuing a collective codec standard. It's painful.

    H.264 is outstanding (with the exception of that good old black-crushing bug at compression). but it sucks that Apple is so, well, Apple with it.

    Sigh indeed, so much for hopes.

  3. ardichoke
    2 Jul '09, 2:12 am

    This is pretty ridiculous... dare I say even ridonkulous. I love technology, and competition usually sparks innovation... but when it comes time to pick a standard like this the community needs to get it's act together, choose a format and stick to it. Preferably an open one so as to encourage adherence to the standard.

  4. RyanMeray
    2 Jul '09, 4:17 am

    Once again, Apple can go $%!@ itself.

  5. DrLiam
    2 Jul '09, 9:57 am

    Everything is an uphill battle...

  6. Zuntar
    2 Jul '09, 11:10 am
    Quoting RyanMeray

    Once again, Apple can go $%!@ itself.

    My first thought.

  7. chrisWhite
    2 Jul '09, 5:42 pm
    Quoting UPSLynx

    H.264 is outstanding (with the exception of that good old black-crushing bug at compression). but it sucks that Apple is so, well, Apple with it.

    Exactly.

  8. mirage
    2 Jul '09, 5:52 pm

    There is at least Dailymotion

    Watch Video…without Flash

  9. mirage
    2 Jul '09, 6:03 pm

    Here are some videos to try with Firefox 3.5
    http://olpc.dailymotion.com/
    http://openvideo.dailymotion.com/us

  10. AlexDeGruven
    7 Jul '09, 3:56 pm

    It still needs a bit of work, but FF coming out of the gate with video tag support is going to create a huge push for the eventual demise of the .flv format, which should never have been birthed to begin with, and wouldn't have, had 'everyone' started thinking about interoperability from the get go.

    FF's continual gobbling up of market share will, hopefully, help further the development of the open video formats like .ogg, so they become truly viable for everyone.

  11. chrisWhite
    7 Jul '09, 7:48 pm

    Cheers for that!

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