There are a few basic tenets of goodness when it comes to technology, at least in terms of how Google and its minions see things. Open source and open standards = good, proprietary = bad. Free = good, paid products = evil. And Google, as its mantra repeatedly suggests, does no evil.
It should come as no surprise, therefore that the search engine giant has just launched a new video codec initiative and “web media project” by the name of WebM, purportedly with the goal of providing the unwashed masses with a free and open video format on par with leading commercial choices.
Part of this is the open sourcing of VP8 video codec, released anew under a BSD-style, royalty-free license.
After all, video, as the WebM blog notes, is “now core to the web experience” and needs a format able to transcend both the PC and mobile computing environments.
“A key factor in the web’s success is that its core technologies such as HTML, HTTP, TCP/IP, etc. are open and freely implementable,” waxes lyrical the WebM blog, adding “To that end, we are excited to introduce WebM, a broadly-backed community effort to develop a world-class media format for the open web.”
And broadly backed it is, too. Google has already touted support from big players in the mobile and visual computing space, including MIPS, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Skype and NVIDIA.
TI hailed the initiative “a major stepping stone in the video world,” and added that with “more advanced video capabilities hitting mobile devices, high performance and low power must come hand in hand – one can’t be sacrificed for another.”
Manufacturers, explained TI, were constantly running up against the challenges associated with ever-increasing battery constraints in the mobile environment. Smooth video playback on low-power mobile and portable devices, the company affirmed, is critical because users want hours of playing time between battery charges on those products.
Of course TI went on to use the announcement to plug its OMAP mobile processors, saying that the chip’s high performance and low power balance was just what the video hungry hordes needed.
“With access to the VP8 code, our OMAP 4 platform delivers high-resolution VP8 decode at the low power levels that mobile architectures demand. We deliver VP8 performance efficiently, leveraging a highly differentiated video engine as opposed to complete reliance on the MCU,” TI blogged.
NVIDIA was a tad more subtle in plugging its Tegra mobile processor, noting “As a leader in visual computing, NVIDIA is always looking to enable users with the best video experiences, whether it’s creating, viewing or broadcasting. We support Google’s efforts to drive broad adoption of the VP8 codec and new WebM format.”
Even Adobe noted that upcoming releases of Flash Player would support the VP8 video codec, suggesting lines have been clearly drawn and that the web video wars were about to get even more heated.
Things are already fairly complex with the whole HTML5 standard for video playback, including the whole hoopla surrounding the H.264 standard licensed by the likes of Apple and Microsoft for their respective browsers as opposed to the more ‘open’ browsers like Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera opting for Ogg Theora.
Google is apparently hoping that WebM will serve as some sort of rope bridge between the standards, a middle ground of sorts that will satisfy both proprietary and open camps.
Indeed the new standard could even be pulled into the W3C HTML5 specification as a requirement.
One thing’s for sure, Google’s gang are convinced WebM and VP8 will dramatically increase the Web success directly tied to open and freely implementable technologies, believing it to be a solid technology promising flexibility, efficiency, openness and high-quality.
Now it just remains to be seen what consumers make of it all.
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How to Play WebM Video
Playing on YouTube
- Download and install a supported browser (listed below).
- Start the newly installed browser.
- Go to www.youtube.com/html5 and enroll in the YouTube HTML5 experiment.
- Search for a video by keyword. For example, trailers.
- In the browser’s address bar, add
&webm=1to the end of the URL. For example,http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=trailers&aq=f&webm=1. - Press Enter.
- In the list of videos that appears, click any of the links.
- The video will play in your browser and display HTML5 webm in the toolbar of the video player.
