Google I/O 2010: WebM, Google’s Open Video Format for HTML5

The announcement most people with interest in web video expected at the Google I/O 2010 conference has been made. Google has open-sourced the VP8 codec, which it acquired along with On2, but went beyond that with the announcement of the WebM Project. The project’s aim is to develop and spread the WebM video format recently launched. The WebM is a free and open video format, designed for the web by Google with the support for other browser makers, web companies, software makers and, importantly, hardware manufacturers.

Google open-sources VP8

The announcement is of great importance in the context of the HTML5 video ‘wars.’ The debate over the codec choice has stalled development and progress in the field. WebM promises to get things moving again and is being supported by the vast majority of players. The problems with HTML5 video are well known. It narrows down to codec choice, Microsoft and Apple support H.264, Mozilla and Opera support the open-source Theora. There are arguments for both sides, H.264 is technically superior, Theora is patent- and license-free.

Google’s VP8 codec, used by WebM, promises to be both. On the one hand, its quality and performance are said to be on par with H.264, on the other, Google is releasing the source code under a very liberal license. On paper, this sounds great. What’s more, WebM will be supported by most web browsers, Google Chrome of course, but also Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera.

Mozilla, Opera and Microsoft are behind WebM

In fact, both Mozilla and Opera were involved in the development of WebM and representatives from both companies were on stage at the Google I/O conference when Google made the announcement. Microsoft has also pledged partial support for VP8 and WebM in the upcoming Internet Explorer 9, the software giant’s first web browser to support HTML5. However, WebM videos will only work in IE 9 if the user has the VP8 codec installed on their machine. Microsoft hasn’t said if this will be the case for Theora as well.

WebM is also enjoying the support for software manufacturers and middleware service providers. YouTube has already started converting all videos to the WebM format. Already, there are 1.2 million videos available and more are coming. Other content providers like Brightcove, which offers white-label web video services, will support WebM as well. What’s more, Adobe has pledged to build WebM support into Flash so that videos using the format will be playable by Flash-based players and in Flash apps.

Hardware support for WebM

But browser and software support is one thing, real-world adoption is another. A browser doesn’t just have to be capable of playing WebM videos, it has to be able to do that smoothly without eating up all of the machine’s resources. This isn’t much of a problem for PCs, most are more than capable of decoding HD videos without much of a performance hit. On mobile or less powerful devices, smartphones, tablets, netbooks, things change.

For these, hardware decoding support for the video codec is key. This is why the fact that Google was able to drum up support from most major chip makers and hardware manufacturers is crucial. Big names like AMD, ARM, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and so on have pledged their support for WebM, meaning that devices with hardware-decoding capabilities will be coming in the next months and years.

WebM's future is still uncertain

With this, VP8 has a real chance of competing with H.264, which already enjoys a broad support. From hand-held cameras to YouTube, H.264 is everywhere. It will be hard to beat it outright, but VP8 doesn’t have to become the most popular video codec out there, it just has to be a viable option. Web sites will use VP8 instead of or in parallel with H.264 if they know that the videos will be playable by the vast majority of web browsers and on a broad array of devices. However, there are problems with VP8, despite its many advantages, problems that may prevent it from being widely adopted or even kill it before it even gets started, which we’ll discuss in a more detailed technical overview of WebM and VP8.