HTML 5 – Video Format

HTML 5 , the next revision to HTML 4. As said in my previous article HTML5 is standardized to support every formats without extensions or plug-ins. So the format is to be open-source and royalty free.

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WebM – Among the announcements made at today’s Google I/O keynote is WebM, a new open-source, royalty-free video format based around the VP8 codec intended for use with HTML5 video. The WebM project’s goal is to develop “a high-quality, open video format for the web that is freely available to everyone.” The project has the backing of Google, Mozilla, Opera, and numerous other companies. If it catches, on, it could settle the rift that currently exists with HTML5 video support, thus speeding up HTML5 adoption.

We can use the below simple code as like we used for image display in html after if WebM is accepted for HTML5

[code]
<video src="movie.webm" controls>
Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>
[/code]

Currently there are two competing products

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1. H.264 (backed by Apple and other companies)
2. ogg theora (backed by Mozilla )

For now H.264 is supported by all major browsers like chrome, safari, and the upcoming IE9 but Ogg is only supported by Mozilla Firefox. and H.264 format proved for higher quality streaming video than ogg, but Mozilla cites licensing concerns with H.264 as its justification for going with the free Ogg Theora format. MPEG-LA, the group that oversees the H.264 format, says that it won’t charge licensing fees for use of format for Web video. However, this free-for-Web-video arrangement lasts through only 2016; after that, it’s up to MPEG-LA to decide whether to charge for H.264 or to keep it free.

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So, at overall WebM is supported by almost every browsers and the latest news says that Microsoft is going to release its IE9 with VP8 codec, that means IE8 is going to support WebM too.