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Internet Explorer 9 HTML5 video will only support H.264; swivel on it, Ogg and Adobe
In a bold, blunt and brash announcement that must surely be intended to up-stage Steve Jobs' open letter to Adobe, the IE9 development team has stated that their new browser will only support H.264. This heralds the death of Ogg's Theora codec -- but OSnews says it better than I ever could. It also comes hot on the heels of news that Google's VP8 codec will be open-sourced... though I dare not predict whether IE9 or Google has more clout in the upcoming HTML5 video war.
If such sad news wasn't big enough, Microsoft (or the IE Blog team) also finishes their blog post with a pot-shot at Adobe. "Flash does have some issues, particularly around reliability, security, and performance." In other words, the IE9 team consider Flash to be the gimp -- the gammy leg -- when it comes to crafting a smooth, rich, HTML5 Web. What's next? Coffee at a sidewalk cafe with Steve Jobs?
For those wondering, Microsoft cites a bunch of weird and unreal reasons for its adoption of H.264 over other HTML5 video codecs. They mention intellectual property rights, open source... but... they don't mention that Microsoft has a stake in H.264, or that its 'freeness' will terminate in 2016. While this will definitely make the Web a lot smoother for the end user, Microsoft will gain a huge amount of control in the process.
Comments
9
Subscribe to comments5hRreDDyApr 30th 2010 8:20AM
*In a epic voice* - "And so the front battle lines are drawn!"
junkpunchApr 30th 2010 8:37AM
"Flash does have some issues, particularly around reliability, security, and performance."
Coming from the IE team? HA HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH HAHA HA HA HA...oh, I need to catch my breath.....HAHAHHAHHHAHAHHAHAHHHAHAHAAA!
Sebastian AnthonyApr 30th 2010 9:48AM
It does seem a bit rich coming from them :P
JoshMay 1st 2010 11:43PM
Quite a large percent of all IE crashes are currently caused by flash, i don't have the statistics on-hand atm, but if you google it im sure you can find it.
robertApr 30th 2010 9:37AM
"This heralds the death of Ogg's Theora codec" -
That's a bit premature, Ogg Threora support will live on - we use the same approach as Wikipedia on our site - provide Ogg Theora natively with HTML5 in Firefox and via a plugin for everyone else. Saves a ton of server space to only have to store one format.
Sebastian AnthonyApr 30th 2010 9:47AM
The problem is... IE9 might not support a Theora plug-in! Or, as you know, plug-ins are notoriously unstable -- Theora will crash the browser, and users will be left with a bitter taste in their mouth :(
robertApr 30th 2010 4:02PM
All the more reason for them to switch to firefox :)
squished18Apr 30th 2010 10:19AM
I was concerned at first when reading this article...then I realized I was reading it on Firefox.
Lonnie McClureApr 30th 2010 12:38PM
If Google open sources VP8, and then YouTube supports only that for HTML 5 and not H.264, I think the outcome would be clear. Google would control both the carrot (open source codec with quality to rival H.264), and the stick (the largest video sharing site on the internet).
If Google does not open source VP8, however, I don't see them going with Ogg Theora for HTML 5 videos on YouTube, which would leave H.264 as the winner.