Tag Archives: H.264
A Move Towards HTML Video Codecs For Chrome
Posted on 11. Jan, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 
3 Comments
The Chromium team has announced today that support for open video codecs will become a larger focus for the open source browser. Last year, Google purchase the video company On2, whose VP8 open source video codec became the catalyst for the WebM project, an open source consortium for video standards on the internet.
This is in an effort to move away from what is currently the defacto video standard, which is H.264. This is the codec that is used combined with Flash on YouTube to play clips, and many other sites use the same technology.
Inside Chrome 6: Video
Posted on 19. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments
This article on video is part of a series of posts discussing the new features and technology that will come with the official newest release of Chrome browser – Version 6.
The rise of video on the internet is going to really change the web – although that has been said for years, it’s taking advances in broadband and browser technology for it to happen. We’re getting close, and the fact that Google TV is coming later this year with a version of Android and the Chrome browser on top, new technology in Chrome 6 will propel web-based video even further.
Chrome 6 will support the WebM standard, which runs on the recently opened-up video codec called VP8. WebM is supported by Mozilla, Opera and Google among other technology companies. The early beta of Firefox 4 is the first browser to support WebM.
Earlier this year, Google bought On2 Technologies, which owned the patent to VP8. Once the acquisition was made, several open source groups such as the Free Software Foundation asked Google to open up VP8, and they did. The On2 acquisition was big for the development of HTML5 video in newer generation browsers. With WebM, HTML5 video is run through an open standard, a process that in the past has been handled by Flash and a video technology called H.264, which is not open.
So what does this all mean? Improved quality of video as well as overall performance, no matter where you are. Plus, we’ll see more capability to mash-up, modify and generally edit videos in ways we probably have not yet even though of.
Need some proof? Consider this Chrome Experiment called “Destructive Video” by Sean Christmann. Although it uses the Ogg video codec instead (WebM just came out), you are able to break up a clip into pieces whilst the video is play. Also, check out the YouTube mobile site, which is HTML5-based and very snappy. Although the codec used here is H.264, the WebM format will be introduced as mobile devices get WebM, which Android is expected have implemented later on this year.
