Oh wow. Google’s dropping support for h.264 video in Chrome, because, they say, they’re only going to support “open codec technologies”:
To that end, we are changing Chrome’s HTML5 support to make it consistent with the codecs already supported by the open Chromium project. Specifically, we are supporting the WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs, and will consider adding support for other high-quality open codecs in the future. 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.
Instead, Google’s going to push its own WebM video, based on the VP8 standard and Theora. The problem is that there’s not a ton of support for WebM yet, in particular when it comes to hardware decoders and when it comes to mobile. H.264 also already has a ton of momentum, largely thanks to the mobile space.
In other words, the video standards battle is back on. And expect to still see lots of Adobe Flash outside of Google’s YouTube to play video if you’re using Chrome. Speaking of! How come Adobe Flash – a very closed-source technology – will still be baked into Chrome? [Google]
Your Mate Alex
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 9:22 AMI wonder what this will mean for all 6 of the google chrome users.
Bob
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 10:30 AMHmm make that 5, I think I’ll try a different web brouser now :)
roboprez
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 8:46 PMCan you tell me why? Give me an example where not having in built support for H.264 will be a problem.
mbryant
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 4:30 PMYou do realise that Chrome is the third most popular browser (ahead of Safari and Opera), with over 12% of the web population using it, right?
Sam
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 9:26 AMIsn’t H.264 support one of the big reasons people use Chrome over Firefox (I know there are many other reasons too)?
ErraticFocus
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 10:46 AMHow come Adobe Flash – a very closed-source technology – will still be baked into Chrome?
Because Flash is a container, not a codec.
Your Mate Alex
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 12:43 PMpotatoe potatoe. google don’t give a shit about open source. it’s amazing this company keeps releasing free products and yet is so wealthy. it’s like magic. they can release the code as open source because any work that anyone else does on it is irrelevant and useless. it’s still a closed technology they own and can steer. they’re just trying to reignite a format war they lost. Google makes a lot of money analysing data. The more web components they control, the more they can steer to make money for them otherwise they wouldn’t be spending money on it. obviously
Peter Simpson
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 11:09 AMMy browser of choice won’t be dictated by one video codec. That said, I primarily use Firefox anyway.
I like when open source projects stick up the finger at proprietary get ups, like VLC with Apple and their app store. Makes my day that much brighter.
Stinky
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 12:04 PMYoutube’s HTML5 video is served as WebM.
Aaron
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 12:08 PMWOOHOO! GO GOOGLE!
WIN FOR OPEN SOURCE
ESPECIALLY OGG VORBIS
gargravarr
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 3:24 PMIn what way is H.264 closed? Google’s having a sook because people aren’t rushing to support THEIR codec.
Rahul Khanna
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 6:06 PMMPEG LA which own H.264 charge royalties for its use (which is one of the pragmatic reasons that ‘free’ operating systems/programs can’t necessarily afford it). Recently MPEG LA said that they’d make it partially free (cost-wise) to encourage adoption but there is no binding agreement to keep it free for all purposes. Authoring tools etc for instance will still have to pay to use it.
That’s why more WebM is good – the open source means that no one will be excluded by threat of $. Obviously, it’s a win for google – but it goes beyond that.
Ed
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 4:30 PMJust uninstalled Chrome from my computers.
roboprez
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 8:49 PMDear Lord, FLASH IS OPEN SOURCE!
It’s just Flash Player that is not. If someone wanted to there’s plenty of documentation to write an open source flash player.
Data-Cain
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 4:27 PMyeah but flash is shit. :\
Ha
Sunday, January 16, 2011 at 8:43 PMExactly… But people don’t see that unfortunately