Google Open Sources VP8 Codec as the WebM Project
Google Open Sources VP8 Codec as the WebM Project
Posted 05/19/2010 at 3:02pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
7
Comments
Print
In the emerging world of HTML5 video, the H.264 codec has the early lead. But as anticipated, Google threw a new competitor into the mix today at Google I/O. Google's VP8 codec is now available to anyone to use royalty-free. This was announced as part of a larger project called WebM in conjunction with Mozilla and Opera.
Many have been concerned with the patent ownership of H.264, and open source projects like Firefox have been unable to include it. VP8 could be a real alternative here. The other open alternative, Ogg Theora, is seen as having inferior quality to that of H.264 and VP8. There were rumors earlier today that Microsoft would be building support for VP8 into the upcoming Internet Explorer 9. Redmond has clarified they will support the standard, but users will need to install the codec on their systems.
In short order Chrome, Firefox, and Opera will have support for the new codec. Youtube will also be made compatible with VP8. No word on if Safari will join the VP8 club as well. Flash isn't dead yet, but there's another vulture circling it now. Would you prefer VP8 or H.264 be the next generation video standard?
More like this
7
Comments
Comments are closed on this article
bloodgain
May 19, 2010 at 9:46pm
As a software engineer and IT professional, I am not one of these people that believes that all software should be open-source, free as in speech, or most certainly free as in beer. However, I do believe that most, if not all, formats for all data -- multimedia or otherwise -- should be open, or at least standardized. You can keep your implementations as closed as you like, and charge whatever you want for your products, but it is in the best interest of everyone that formats be shared and standardized (with rare exceptions for security purposes or internal-use formats).
So go VP8!
pellier
May 19, 2010 at 4:55pm
Flash will integrate the codec. There will also be a direct show plugin. The quality is a little worse than H.264 but better than VC-1
monkeykid753
May 19, 2010 at 4:13pm
You failed to realize that Wave was opened up to the public today... Well... Yeah... I said it.... You wanna write an article on it now?
My exploding trick: Any iPad/Phone/Mac haters get a lot of silly putty, then clog up the speakers on iPad and iPhone or vents (if they exist) on an iMac and wait for a few minutes... then....
BIG BOOM!!!!
The Creator of that
Biceps
May 19, 2010 at 4:13pm
And let's take a look at the actual codecs. I can download a clip encoded in H.264 and play it in Windows Media Player, VLC player, etc. I can do the same with a WMV. I choose to use H.264 because I can get 640x480 (DVD) quality with H.264, and only use 35% to 50% of the space I would use for a WMV.
So, what I don't know (and no one EVER seems to talk about this, for some reason) is:
- Does flash offer better video compression rates than H.264?
- How do the compression rates for V8 compare to H.264 and flash?
Because, as much as I love Google, like Adobe, and despise Apple (and by extension the technologies they support), if the compression rates aren't competitive, then I am going to be spending longer downloading, and less time watching.
Anyone?
Stinky Fartface
May 20, 2010 at 6:03pm
Flash for video is just a wrapper, just like Quicktime or AVI. As of Flash 9, you could encode using the H.264 codec within the Flash wrapper as a F4V file. Theoretically it should offer the same compression/quality ratios.
SuperiorBeing
May 19, 2010 at 9:43pm
According to this, the VP8 codec is better than theora, but not really a competitor to h.264. H.264 seems to be the best thing out there, but the whole patents that are going to spring up in 2015 thing makes it not a very forward-thinking thing.
Connect with MaximumPC
Featured Content
The gang discusses the GTX 690, Trinity, Ivy Bridge, Amazon, big-box stores, MMOs,...
This month's issue
Feature
Build a PC On Any Budget
Feature
Cloud Services Showdown
How-To
Encrypt Your External Drive
Build It
Upgrade an X58 Rig
Most Commented Articles
Latest Max PC Tweets
- maximumpc: Original RickRoll Video Returns to YouTube After 24-Hour Copyright Hiatus http://t.co/MaH9Sxyy1 day 13 hours ago
- maximumpc: Corsair has decided not to go forward with its $78 million IPO, citing weak equity market conditions http://t.co/A5a4DAzj1 day 13 hours ago
- maximumpc: Want to work at Maximum PC? Our Online Managing Editor, Alex, is moving away, so we need a new one. http://t.co/9Z7JCh0E3 days 10 hours ago
