Video format wars

[w1z4rd]

Aaah now we know why Steve Jobs does not like flash. Its not cause its buggy, its cause its costing him patent money.

 

[AnimateX]

Aaah now we know why Steve Jobs does not like flash. Its not cause its buggy, its cause its costing him patent money.

I don't think that's it. Apple has backed MPEG-4 (which H264 and AAC fall under) all along and even developed their own codec implementations of various MPEG-4 profiles. Apple also has to licence AAC and other formats they use on their devices like the iPod so they are already spending money on patents willingly.

Flash video as we know it on the web is just an embeddable player and a container with a video/audio stream muxed into it. You can mux various formats into a FLV container and you can even find VP6 used on some sites served within Flash, as long as the player code you choose supports it, it will work.

So even though Adobe did play an important role in bringing seamless video to the web (made possible by the wide adoption of Flash), the future of video standards is really not influenced by Adobe at all.

 

[ponder]

I think user uptake will also make the difference....

The user is pretty much oblivious of video codecs, he could care less whether the video streamed to his pc is H.264 or VP8. They use what they are given. If you are referring to developers & contents providers then I agree with you.

 

[HavocXphere]

So even though Adobe did play an important role in bringing seamless video to the web (made possible by the wide adoption of Flash), the future of video standards is really not influenced by Adobe at all.

They've cornered the *entire* vid market on the web and you reckon they have no influence as to which direction this will take.:erm:

 

[AnimateX]

They've cornered the *entire* vid market on the web and you reckon they have no influence as to which direction this will take.:erm:

Video in Flash is not restricted to a particular codec, so yes it does not influence the outcome of which video codec will win out. Flash is a technology enabler, a presentation medium, not a dictator. Even it's role as an enabler is now threatened by HTML5. Content producers who choose which codecs to use have the real weight to influence what becomes the coding standard in video on the web, whether it is served by HTML or wrapped in Flash.

EDIT: Looking at my previous post again I can see how it may read differently than I intended. When I said "video standards" I was referring to codecs all the time, not video delivery methods like Flash.

 

[HavocXphere]

Video in Flash is not restricted to a particular codec

Actual it is. You can find a list of them here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Video#Codec_support

we are excited to include the VP8 video codec in Flash Player in an upcoming release

They are putting the VP8 codec *into* flash. Once they push out VP8 support the number of devices supporting VP8 jumps from zero to about a billion. I dare say that will influence the outcome.

 

[AnimateX]

Actual it is. You can find a list of them here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Video#Codec_support

And that's exactly what I meant, it is not restricted to a particular codec (as in one), I didn't say ANY codec can be used. Although I was not aware that VP8 was not supported, so +1 for you.

http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2010/05/flash_player_support_of_vp8.html
They are putting the VP8 codec *into* flash. Once they push out VP8 support the number of devices supporting VP8 jumps from zero to about a billion. I dare say that will influence the outcome.

I missed that news, thanks for that. I assumed VP8 was previously supported as VP6 has been in use for a while, my bad.