In a move that is very ironic due to the companies involved, the WebM project has revealed that Skype is now using the open source VP8 video codec for one-on-one video calls, in the Windows client version.
WebM praises Skype for making the move, though the latter company has been keeping quiet.
The fact that Skype is now owned by Microsoft, which in turn is trying to get the VP8 codec into a patent pool, effectively negating the benefits of its open source license, may have something to do with silence.
"Our friends at Skype have added support for one-to-one VP8 video calling in Skype 5.5 for Windows," Google's John Luther, product manager of the WebM Project,
wrote.
"If both users in a Skype video call are using Skype 5.5, the call will use VP8 to encode the video streams for optimum transmission across the Internet. Skype also uses VP8 for group video calling," he explained.
The move is a significant one for the WebM project and VP8 in particular. Skype is the biggest VoIP company out there and it's only going to get bigger with Microsoft behind it.
Once it switches completely to VP8, which it seems intent on doing, the volume of VP8-encoded video traffic online will increase significantly.
Granted, VP8 and WebM still have a lot of work to do, not even YouTube is using it extensively, though the Google video site is in the process of converting all of its videos to WebM.
WebM is being positioned as an alternative to the proprietary H.264 video codec to be used with HTML5 video. However, H.264 is already in great use around the web and WebM is fighting an uphill batter.
The MPEGLA, which governs H.264 licensing and which Microsoft is a part of, is looking to create a patent pool for companies which have patents they believe are being used in VP8 so that it can then potentially ask for a license fee from anyone that wants to use VP8.
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