In the never-ending war over HTML5 video formats, Google has done an about-face and dropped H.264 video support from their Chrome browser. The move basically means that it’s now Google and Adobe vs. Apple and Microsoft when it comes to HTML5 video. And for web video producers, it just adds to an existing mess.
Google will now be supporting the WebM format in Chrome. WebM is a video codec that Google purchased and made open-source…so it’s no surprise they have chosen to support their own codec. But if you have your videos in H.264 don’t fret…Chrome still supports Flash which supports H.264. It’s just that Chrome doesn’t support H.264 when it comes to embedding videos with HTML5.
Googles move to “direct our resources towards completely open codec technologies” drew cheers from Mozilla and the open-source crowd , but it has also drawn some pointed criticism. Specifically, opponents want to know why Chrome is supporting Adobe Flash…which is not open source…after they said they dropped H.264 in favor of open source technologies. In other words, why not then drop Flash support too? It’s a good question, but I think we all know the answer to that one.
Hey Dave,
Interesting stuff. So if we want to be able to add WebM to the ever growing list of video options on our sites, do you have a tool you recommend to generate then display WebM videos?
Thanks,
Brian
@Brian – One free tool is available from a Google partner here:
http://www.wildform.com/products/flix/flix_webm.php
Do you think it will get to the point where you have to ask your visitors, “What Web browser and what version are you using?” before you show them your video?
Google and Adobe vs. Apple and Microsoft?
What a mess this is turning into. I wouldn’t want to put any money on who’s going to win this one.
Pete