[whatwg] forwarded: Google opens VP8 video codec

[Peter Beverloo]

On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 11:55, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2010/5/20 Peter Beverloo <peter at lvp-media.com>:
>
> > Microsoft has announced playback support for VP8 in Internet Explorer
> 9[1]
> > under the condition that one has to install a VP8 codec manually, albeit
> via
> > inclusion in another program: "In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support
> > playback of H.264 video as well as VP8 video when the user has installed
> a
> > VP8 codec on Windows."
> > I think that's fairly significant.
>
>
> I don't. They're trying to make "if you install it yourself, it'll
> work" look like they're actually doing anything at all. But they're
> not, because the same applies already to Vorbis and Theora. If
> anything, they're just offering not to deliberately stop it from
> working.
>
>
> - d.
>

Microsoft showing interest in a codec they're not specifically participating
in, different from their involvement in H264, is a good start. In their
revised comments about HTML 5 video[1] they already stated that they would
consider implementing other codecs if the "industry reaches a consensus and
is confident that the uncertainties are resolved". Their wording in the
recent blog-post refers to "an industry" announcement rather than "a Google
announcement", which is why I think it's plausible to assume including the
codec by default will be, partially, dependent on Apple's stance on it.

As Philip already said, right now there simply are a number
of uncertainties limiting the discussion to mere speculation. Let's hope
more clearity will be available soon.

Peter

[1]
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2010/05/03/follow-up-on-html5-video-in-ie9.aspx
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/attachments/20100520/f7192d44/attachment-0001.htm>