Linked by Kroc Camen on Thu 29th Apr 2010 23:04 UTC
I am almost flabbergasted by the spin and blunt-face upon which this news is delivered. We were just discussing the pot calling the kettle black with Apple / Adobe and now Microsoft have also come out in favour of a closed video format for an open web--IE9's HTML5 video support will allow H264 only. Update Now that the initial shock is over, I've rewritten the article to actually represent news rather than something on Twitter.
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Member since:2007-02-17
As for the codec, the w3c backed off specific codecs now for the spec, so its up to the implementors.
Only at the insistence of Apple. W3C originally specified Theora, and Apple threw a hissy fit and vetoed that. Since there is no other competitive royalty-free video codec available at this time, the W3C have been unable to include the codec specification as yet within the HTML5 specification.
This in turn is a major reason why HTML5 is not yet a W3C recommendation.
The codec is NOT up to the implementors. One cannot have a royalty encumberence within a web satndard, so there is no agreed standard as yet.
Perhaps if Google make VP8 royalty-free, then this situation can be resolved. Or maybe Theora can be agreed upon eventually. Whatever ... h264 is NOT it.
Member since:
2006-02-05
Ok, so they embraced HTML5 video. They didn't extend any standard, that would be implementing the video tag by calling it ms-video or something stupid, and giving it a different javascript api then everyone else.
As for the codec, the w3c backed off specific codecs now for the spec, so its up to the implementors. Not only that, but what apple is doing is having a worse effect at this point - you can download chrome on windows which supports both, but if you are on an iDevice (which dominates the mobile web), it is h264 only.
If they had done something like implement the video tag with WMV only support, then I would probably agree with you, even though it still doesn't really fit.