IE9 to implement H.264 in HTML5

[murraybiscuit]

Apple and MS will support H.264 as a video codec in HTML5.

As much as they crow about the superior quality of the codec, you have to wonder how noble their motives are when they ultimately benefit as licensors of the codec...
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/opensource/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224700360

On a positive note, Google looks to be opening VP8 source. It's hoped that they will announce something at IO this month (May 19-20).
That could give Mozilla a much needed foot up and provide a clearer path for the way ahead.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/04/google-planning-to-open-the-vp8-video-codec.ars

 

[dequadin]

Didn't Google buy H.264?

Jobs said the other day that "they" are planning a patent attack against Theora?

Not that much of a shocker, at least it's a standard...

TLTG

 

[murraybiscuit]

No.
H.264 is licensed by MPEG-LA, which has MS and Apple as benefactors.
Google bought On2, the company that developed VP6 - the foundation of theora.
The point is that they also bought a whole bunch of patents with the acquisition of On2, which means that if Apple and MS attack them, they could attack them back.
If Google announce at IO that they will open up VP8, it shows that they are confident to repel torpedo patent litigation.

The interesting issue will be native browser support and market penetration.
With IE + Apple backing H264 and FF + Chrome + Opera backing VP8, the odds look slanted toward the former pair.
It is speculated that Adobe may drop h264 encoding of flv in favour of VP8, as Adobe will basically back market fragmentation in order to leverage their 'cross platform' video solution.
And they have a big axe to grind with Apple right now over flash.

The interesting thing about MS is that they won't allow playback of system codecs through the browser video tag. So even if you install VP8 VFW it will only work in WMP, not IE. I think it's pretty obvious from this decision that they want to profit off licensing the codec.

Another question is what codec large online media decides to use. Youtube will obviously favour On2, which will be a big card in Google's weaponry.

Let the video wars begin...