The final piece of the puzzle in the HTML5 <video> debate has been put in place, Microsoft has announced that it plans to support only the H.264 video codec in the upcoming Internet Explorer 9. IE was the last major browser that hadn’t chosen a side in the ‘war’ yet, though
Microsoft’s stance was to be expected. But that doesn’t mean that the war is over, in fact, the hostilities may be just beginning.
With Microsoft joining Apple in support of H.264, Mozilla and Opera are now facing an even tougher battle as the sole supporters of the open alternative, Ogg Theora. And, while Firefox has a very solid market share, it even leads in a few countries, Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser around the world. IE doesn’t have HTML5 support yet, but it is one of the main driving forces behind the next release, IE9.
HTML5 video is seen as the Adobe Flash killer HTML5 is billed as the future of the web, even
Steve Jobs says so, and the <video> tag is seen by many as the first viable alternative to Adobe Flash for online video. The problem is, browser makers are bickering over which compression standard to use, leading to a fragmented market. The stalemate has been putting off webmasters that don’t want to devote themselves to one codec until the browser manufacturers settle their differences.
Mozilla and Opera opt for the open alternative As it stands, Mozilla only supports the open-source Ogg Theora codec. It says that, while H.264 may be free to use and implement, it’s still proprietary and its licensing status could change if the governing body, MPEG LA, decides to. Opera has a similar stance, though its motivations have more to do with the financial side.
Microsoft and Apple are part of the H.264 governing body On the other side of the debate, Apple only implemented H.264 support in Safari, arguing that it’s technically superior and that the Ogg Theora, though open-source, may still be covered by unknown patents. Now, Microsoft joins the camp, claiming standardization as the main reason for the choice. Both Apple and Microsoft are part of the MPEG LA and have licensed patents for use in the AVC/H.264 codec.
What Microsoft also fails to mention is that this whole mess is caused precisely by the lack of standardization. A codec was
not specified in the proposed HTML5 standard as the various sides involved couldn’t reach an agreement.
Google could end the war or add more coal to the fire This leaves Google as the only pseudo-neutral party. It supports both H.264 and Ogg Theora in Google Chrome, the only major browser to do so. Political issues aside, this approach would seem like the logical one. But it’s not as clear-cut as it seems, Google-owned YouTube only supports H.264, making its HTML5 player unusable in Firefox or Opera.
Still, Google may be the only company holding the key to unblocking the stalemate. It acquired video-compression technology company On2 last year and there are rumors of it
open-sourcing the modern VP8 codec. In fact, Mozilla is said to already be on board building VP8 support in Firefox. On paper, this would satisfy all parties involved.
VP8 is technically equivalent and in some cases superior to H.264, so performance won’t be touted as a selling point. With YouTube, the largest video site, likely adopting it as well, browser makers would be more or less forced to build support into their products.
But Google is unlikely to take such a decisive stance. Considering that all of the videos on YouTube would have to be converted, a gigantic task, it is unlikely that it will drop support for H.264 anytime soon, if ever. It all depends on how far Google is willing to take it. But if Google only takes half a step and open-sources the VP8 codec without getting exclusively behind it, the move may serve to confuse the market even further rather than push things forward.
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