Google yesterday announced the WebM Project, an open and royalty-free audio/video format intended to break the stalemate between Ogg Theora and H.264 for the codec of choice in the upcoming HTML5 spec. It’s an important development for the future of the web, and we’re here to break it down for you.
What is HTML5?
Short for HyperText Markup Language, HTML standardizes the way paragraphs, quotes, links, images, lists and other common web elements are implemented. Other languages exist to enhance the richness and presentation of this material, but all of them depend on HTML to display it.
HTML5 is the next version of this bedrock language used to structure every webpage on the Internet, but the standard is not yet complete. Members of a consortium known as the W3C haven’t yet agreed upon how an important new feature will work.
The biggest hang-up is centered around the <video> tag, a feature unique to HTML5 that will allow browsers to play videos on sites like YouTube without relying on plug-ins like Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight. Flash, in particular, is widely considered to be the culprit behind the vast majority of browser crashes users blame on the browser itself.
The <video> debate
Despite the incredible potential presented by the <video> tag, HTML5 has come to a standstill because W3C members cannot agree on a standard audio and video format to use for this plug-in-free video technology.
Microsoft and Apple have presently pledged support for the H.264 codec, a video technology that demands royalties of up to $5 million a year from browser companies that implement support. Their motives have been the subject of intense scrutiny, however, as both companies are members of the MPEG LA, the licensing authority that oversees the rights to H.264. In other words, both companies stand to profit handsomely from broad adoption of the H.264 format for HTML5 video.
That criticism has come primarily from Mozilla, Google and Opera, the leading supporters of the alternative Ogg Theora codec. Though some have questioned Theora’s maturity when it comes to efficiently delivering video at the volume demanded of sites like YouTube, it was nevertheless posed as a competitor due to its royalty and patent-free nature.
WebM explained
The WebM Project is an important dark horse candidate in the discussion. The audio/video format is based on two separate technologies: the royalty and patent-free Ogg Vorbis codec for audio and VP8 for video. The former has been a long-time favorite amongst audiophiles and is widely regarded for its high quality at low file sizes. It is the VP8 codec, however, that has been the subject of considerable debate over the last 24 hours.
Developed by On2 Technologies, VP8 is a high-quality video codec Google acquired the rights to when it purchased On2 in February for the tidy sum of $124.6 million. Google yesterday freed the VP8 codec from any and all royalties, along with support from Mozilla, Opera, Qualcomm, AMD, NVIDIA, ARM and more than 30 other companies significant to the GPU, browser and smartphone industries.
The official unveiling of the WebM Project has effectively obsoleted Ogg Theora’s momentum and established a more mature and serious competitor to the H.264 camp. YouTube is already moving to encode recent videos to the new format, while beta builds of Firefox and Chrome have already added support.
Does WebM end the <video> debate?
The WebM Project is a much more serious competitor than Ogg Theora, but it still faces several major hurdles. Chief amongst them, H.264 has a significant head start when it comes to industry support: YouTube videos are already encoded in it, all modern smartphones support it, and it’s an industry standard for broadcast and Blu-ray. NVIDIA and AMD have also designed all of their recent GPUs to accelerate H.264 video, meaning users can experience smooth playback, even if their processor isn’t up to the task.
WebM has none of this momentum, but it is evident that this probably won’t be true for long. Google plans to build WebM support into the next version of Android, which will give WebM a home on modern smartphones. NVIDIA and AMD have pledged to provide GPU acceleration for the technology, which will grant WebM-encoded videos smooth playback on a wide variety of devices. Mozilla, Google and Opera plan to build the technology into their browsers, and Microsoft will offer support if users download a plug-in.
In short, WebM does not end the debate over the best AV format for the <video> tag, but it does move the discussion closer to a conclusion that won’t cripple the future Internet with exorbitant royalties.
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