Google Removing H.264 Support in Chrome

#1

Post by spaetzel » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 8:05 PM UTC

Google Removing H.264 Support in Chrome
blog.chromium.org

Re: Google Removing H.264 Support in Chrome

#2

Post by spaetzel » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 8:18 PM UTC

So in the near future to use the tag, you'll need an H.264 file for IE and Safari, OGG for Firefox and, WebM for Chrome.

Re: Google Removing H.264 Support in Chrome

#3

Post by app » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 8:19 PM UTC

A big step backwards for HTML5 video adoption and premature IMO. Other than Android there isn't an existing consumer device out there that plays WebM that I know of. Certainly there is no hardware decoding. Now content creators who host their own video will have to double storage costs or be relegated to Flash and the smallest of the big browsers.

Re: Google Removing H.264 Support in Chrome

#4

Post by ciupicri » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 8:20 PM UTC

spaetzel wrote: post #2

So in the near future to use the tag, you'll need an H.264 file for IE and Safari, OGG for Firefox and, WebM for Chrome.

The next version of Firefox will have support for WebM[1].

[1] http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/features/

Re: Google Removing H.264 Support in Chrome

#5

Post by patrickaljord » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 8:21 PM UTC

spaetzel wrote: post #2

So in the near future to use the tag, you'll need an H.264 file for IE and Safari, OGG for Firefox and, WebM for Chrome.

Doesn't Firefox support WebM already?

Re: Google Removing H.264 Support in Chrome

#6

Post by spaetzel » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 8:22 PM UTC

ciupicri wrote: post #4

spaetzel wrote: post #2

So in the near future to use the tag, you'll need an H.264 file for IE and Safari, OGG for Firefox and, WebM for Chrome.

The next version of Firefox will have support for WebM[1]. [1] http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/features/

Good to hear. Now need to get WebM into the average web video production workflow.

Re: Google Removing H.264 Support in Chrome

#7

Post by Kylekramer » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 8:22 PM UTC

spaetzel wrote: post #2

So in the near future to use the tag, you'll need an H.264 file for IE and Safari, OGG for Firefox and, WebM for Chrome.

Well, both Firefox and Chrome will be able to do both Theora and WebM in the future, but the problem stands. Notably, the lines seem to splitting along who are licensors of H.264 and who aren't.

Re: Google Removing H.264 Support in Chrome

#8

Post by dev_jim » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 8:23 PM UTC

What the hell? It's sad that Google's corporate strategy is starting to override what's in the best interests of it's users. Web video is finally, after so many years, actually encoded in H.264. Who besides YouTube uses WebM or Ogg? I'll be going back to Safari if this happens.

Re: Google Removing H.264 Support in Chrome

#9

Post by mbreese » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 8:25 PM UTC

And exactly who does this end up helping? I'm all for open formats, but I'm more for compatibility.

Re: Google Removing H.264 Support in Chrome

#10

Post by mapgrep » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 8:26 PM UTC

I thought Chrome came bundled with Flash Player http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/25/google-chrome-flash/

...which supports H.264 in an MP4 container...

http://diveintohtml5.org/video.html

....so I'm not clear on what's actually happening here. Is Chrome going to just stop handing off MP4/H.264 from video tags to the bundled Flash Player even though it's there and can play it? Or will it stop bundling Flash Player? Or bundle a crippled Flash Player? None of the above?