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Google to open-source YouTube's video codec, may end HTML5 video war
Rumors are swirling about Google's plans to release VP8, the video codec that powers YouTube, as open source. That could put an end to the HTML5 video wars between open codec Ogg Theora (backed by Mozilla, and backed by Google on mobile devices) and H.264, the proprietary codec favored by Apple and Microsoft (in IE9, anyway).
VP8 arguably offers better quality than Theora, and it wouldn't have H.264's licensing issues if it were made open source. In theory, it could crush them both. In practice, it could be a political issue. Apple will probably keep pushing H.264 hard, and what Microsoft might do is anyone's guess. The Inquirer is reporting that Google's announcement is expected next month. HTML5 video has become the best soap opera on the web, and I can't wait to see what happens next.
Update: As several commenters pointed out, I was mistaken about VP8 being an option in YouTube. The deal is that Google will very likely start using it in YouTube after they take it open source.
VP8 arguably offers better quality than Theora, and it wouldn't have H.264's licensing issues if it were made open source. In theory, it could crush them both. In practice, it could be a political issue. Apple will probably keep pushing H.264 hard, and what Microsoft might do is anyone's guess. The Inquirer is reporting that Google's announcement is expected next month. HTML5 video has become the best soap opera on the web, and I can't wait to see what happens next.
Update: As several commenters pointed out, I was mistaken about VP8 being an option in YouTube. The deal is that Google will very likely start using it in YouTube after they take it open source.
Comments
23
Subscribe to commentschucka-powerApr 13th 2010 9:19AM
fucking great ;-D
HarshApr 13th 2010 9:29AM
Youtube/Flash video in general doesn't use VP8. It can use either H.263(since v7), VP6(since v8) or H.264(since v9update3).
NickApr 13th 2010 11:44AM
Not yet, until Google will convert all their video files to the new codec.
S4RsApr 13th 2010 9:31AM
Does this mean that they can finally implement this codec in picasa. Video files are limited to SD, < 100 MB, and only limited filetype support. It sucks. Why did I pay for 80 Gigs of storage again?
kingkool68Apr 13th 2010 10:10AM
Because Picasa is made for displaying and organizing photos.
S4RsApr 13th 2010 10:37AM
Picasa the app, handles my movie files fine. Its the fact that picasaweb supports videos, but has a shitty implementation that is not on par with youtube that I dont understand. And I pay for my picasa space. Its not like youtube which is free for all unlimited space..
ArnieApr 13th 2010 9:53AM
YouTube video looks like crap to some of the other video sites out there and if that is because of the codec then no thanks.
NickApr 13th 2010 11:45AM
It's because of the bad H.264 encoder they have. The source files should be of much higher quality.
kingkool68Apr 13th 2010 10:13AM
Apple's big gripe about Ogg Theora is lack of hardware decoding which improves battery performance on mobile devices. Be prepared for this fight to drag on until there is some hardware decoding support for VP8.
NickApr 18th 2010 10:15AM
That's just being stupid. Apple designs their own ARM chips now, that means they could easily made an Ogg Vorbis/Theora decoding DSP for their Apple A4 chip.
Marty K.Apr 13th 2010 10:22AM
Can someone please tell me how this VP8 is "the codec that powers YouTube"? It's either Flash, or, if you want to use HTML5, H.264.
kyleApr 13th 2010 10:37AM
in general, it's h.264 wrapped in flash; for the html5 beta it's h.264 wrapped in mp4. there is no vp8 in youtube, the author of this post is mistaken
bug frawgApr 13th 2010 10:43AM
Flash isn't a codec :/
Marty K.Apr 13th 2010 10:55AM
Kyle, I thought that the author was mistaken. Youtube's HTML5 beta page makes no mention of VP8, just H.264.
bug frawg, I know that Flash isn't a codec. When I said "It's either Flash.." it was a separate statement referring to video technologies that power youtube video.
hmmApr 13th 2010 1:42PM
I don't know whether you are still confused but currently it is h.264 in flash or h.264 in html5 video. It doesn't matter whether you are using flash or html 5 its still h.264
digitalseditionApr 13th 2010 10:42AM
Begun, this standards war has....
SilverWaveApr 13th 2010 12:20PM
Nope, Ended this Codec War Has...
Hugh Isaacs IIApr 13th 2010 10:43AM
Ummm.... YouTube does't use VP8. It uses VP7.
mrickApr 13th 2010 11:28AM
Flash is H264 and it is super simple to wrap an H264 encoded file and play it back with Flash. I think it is great that Google might open source the codec. It would be interesting to see if Adobe adds that Codec support to Flash. That would allow folks who want to distribute VP8 video to produce one encoded file format and then simply wrap it in a SWF for those web browsers that don't support it.
JoshApr 13th 2010 12:01PM
As long as I can stop seeing my core temp hit 180F on my MacBook when watching a video on there, I don't care what happens. Really would rather avoid switching from Firefox.
That being said, I would expect Microsoft to jump on board with Google. Or Google to lure them in. Apple and Google really aren't best buds anymore and Apple is encroaching on all of Google's turf now, if it is true that Apple is working on a search engine (and expanding iAds beyond the iPhone platform)