H.264 vs WebM: A Civil War of Videos
At this years Google I/O, WebM (VP8) was announced to be the new rival of Apple’s h.264 codec and the fight against the ‘non-opened’ web video crusade. What kind of fight are we looking at?
Google is teaming up with Mozilla and Opera, which have refused to use the expensive h.264 codec in the past. Some claims haveVP8′s quality equal to h.264 while taking as little as half the bandwidth. Although this isn’t entirely true by several comparisons done (see below for links). Google believes that this will unify the browsers and give a secondary option to the Thedora (VP3) codec the other royalty-free video codec. Adobe has supported h.264 as well as other On2 supports.
At first glance, Steve Jobs says that hes ‘unimpressed‘ with the free video codec. When asked what he thought a reply of “not ready for prime time’ was the simple answer returned. One developer agrees with Jobs and in giving his findings by comparing the two video codecs, says that the VP8 codec seems to be “significantly weaker.” (See more comparisons below)
Other Related Articles:
Widespread Adoption Of VP8 Will Take Years, But Google Can Afford To Wait
Google’s Open Source Video Codec Just Started Another Battle With Apple
Google open sources $124.6m video codec
Steve Jobs: Unimpressed with Google open source video codec
HTML5 video and H.264 – what history tells us and why we’re standing with the web
Jobs drops hint on Google open video codec
Google leads WebM fightback against H.264 video
Google / On2 Deal: Debunking Myths, Questioning VP8′s Quality
First Look: VP8 vs. H264
H.264 vs VP8: a video codec comparison
Wikipedia: VP8
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