google dropping h264

J Davis

J Davis

Veteran
codec wars hotting up ...

We expect even more rapid innovation in the web media platform in the coming year and are focusing our investments in those technologies that are developed and licensed based on open web principles. To that end, we are changing Chrome’s HTML5 <video> support to make it consistent with the codecs already supported by the open Chromium project. Specifically, we are supporting the WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs, and will consider adding support for other high-quality open codecs in the future.
Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.
Click to expand...

http://blog.chromium.org/
 
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It was only announced today so the ramifications are unknown. If you are involved with video and you are interested in the
transition of TV to internet and mobile web then its worth noting when stuff like this happens.

The immediate effect of this will be felt by developers and websites who must provide browser / user agent detection and
supply multiple codecs (h264, webM, theora and .flv) for each video if they intend to have their streaming video reach all browsers and mobile devices.

For google to remove a feature this huge from a new product – Chrome browser and Chrome Operating System (link)
suggests that they know something that we don't or are planning something else soon.

As you have probably gathered I have a huge interest in the development of online video so I thought I'd share this news here.
 
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simply put it is just about money, not for technical reason.
Google purchased VP8 to bypass eventual license fee on H264. H264 has been relatively free until today, some promises were done it would stay until 2015, but it could change at anytime.
problem is VP8 is a very niche codec, while H264 has been implemented in many chip, so it is not just a matter of flipping a switch.
Probably Google is now big enough to say NO H264, then many product maker would consider to implement VP8 in their device, being afraid to loose market share if they cannot provide
compatible devices with Google products.
From the customer point of view it is a step back, because H264 (good or bad) was a way to get unified video from PC to camera to mediaplayer to software etc....
and was ok for recoding , playing, broadcasting etc..
Seems same story as DivX , while Google seems to be in better position here.
 
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