Google dropping H.264 from Chrome, emphasising WebM

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 12 January 2011 17:21

Business IT - Technology

Just when you thought there was convergence around H.264 for web video, Google has revealed that it will drop support for the codec in future versions of the Chrome browser.

One of the popular things about HTML5 is that it provides a mechanism for playing videos without requiring the use of plugins, just as browsers can natively display a variety of graphics formats.

But you still need a codec, and the HTML5 standard does not mandate any codecs. The absence of Flash on Apple's popular iPhone/iPod touch/iPad family led many sites - including YouTube - to offer H.264 as an alternative to Flash video. The format has also gained hardware support in a variety of devices.

But H.264 is patent encumbered, and that doesn't sit well with those who believe standardisation should occur around technologies that are completely open.

Google previously made its WebM codec (based on VP8 which it acquired with On2 Technology) royalty free. However, there have been assertions that WebM may infringe on patents not owned or licensed by Google, although that has yet to be tested and Google vice president of product management Sundar Pichai has said the company is confident that there is no infringement.

Google has now announced it will drop H.264 support in its Chrome browser, bringing it into line with the Chromium open source project. So Chrome will support the WebM and Theora video codecs.

But there's a fly in the ointment - see page 2.