Quote:Yes, I broke my own rules and used a "breaking" modifier for this story (let me have my fun for once). Here wee have it, as the rumour mill suggested, Google has released the On2 VP8 video codec as open source (royalty free, BSD-style), while also launching the WebM container format which combines a VP8 video stream with Vorbis audio. Support for WebM has been enabled on YouTube's HTML5 beta, and you can download patches against ffmpeg as well as DirectShow filters for Windows (Gstreamer plugins are labelled as "coming soon"). Mac users are out of luck for now; no QuickTime plugins have been announced yet. Update: The WebM blog is now open - and the list of partners is pretty decent already. It includes ARM, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, and many others. Update II: VP8 will be baked into Flash. Update III: The Opera labs version with WebM support has been released too, for Linux, Mac, and Windows.

The news hasn't been officially announced yet, but the WebM project's website has been launched today, coinciding with the Google I/O conference. As you would expect, both Mozilla and Opera are part of the WebM project, meaning that Opera, Chrome, and Firefox will soon suppor the format out of the box. You can already get your hands on Firefox and Chrome developer snapshots which support it, while an Opera beta is on the way.

The really, really good news is that Google is eating its own dog food: YouTube already supports WebM and VP8, but probably not on all videos. All you need to do is download one of the compatible browsers, enable the YouTube HTML5 beta, and append &webm=1 to the search URL.

"A key factor in the web's success is that its core technologies such as HTML, HTTP, and TCP/IP are open for anyone to implement and improve," the project's FAQ reads, "With video being core to the web experience, a high-quality, open video format choice is needed. WebM is 100% free, and open-sourced under a BSD-style license."

You can download patches to apply to ffmpeg, and Google has also made DirectShow filters available for Windows users. There's also an introduction to the WebM VP8 codec SDK, and of course you can get your hands on the code.

Google is clearly taking on the MPEG-LA with this one, as can be read in the FAQ. "Some video codecs require content distributors and manufacturers to pay patent royalties to use the intellectual property within the codec," the FAQ reads, "WebM and the codecs it supports (VP8 video and Vorbis audio) require no royalty payments of any kind. You can do whatever you want with the WebM code without owing money to anybody."

This is very, very good news for the web, people. The news hasn't been officially announced yet, so wee'll have to wait for more details which will most likely come either today or tomorrow. The WebM blog is still members-only at this point, but wee'll obviously keep you all up to date on whatever happens is now open.

Microsoft and Apple can apply suction to it.

Internet Explorer 9 To Support VP8

Via: webmproject / OSnews

I posted some about it in over in my chatter thread: http://endlessparadigm.com/forum/showthr...#pid309054

Hmmm... so it has finally come.  I'm going to browse some doom9 now.


Though I'd be very surprised if it's able to match up against H.264 in terms of quality.  Both in spec, and implementations.  The newest advancements in these fields are all patented.

Oh yeah, WebM is just rebranded Matroska (MKV).  >.>

Edit: read though that analysis Sensei linked to in the previous post, somewhat disappointing, a lot of stuff ripped off H.264, and still worse in the end.

(This post was last modified: 20/05/2010 06:15 PM by Assassinator.)

Eh, depends how Google does it with Youtube.  If they encode VP8 better than they encode H.264, it'll appear superior to end users - those that actually notice a difference and care.

Youtube was always a key player in deciding what HTML5 video will do, so well, that's settled now.
Apple and fans also have one more reason to ditch Flash :P

(21/05/2010 01:26 AM)ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:  Apple and fans also have one more reason to ditch Flash :P

True. But when Android "Froyo" comes along with hardware-accelerated flash [engadgets preview didn't and still impressed to an extent] - I guess Adobe will be happy in bed with Google after declaring they will support VP8 too (link).

Adobe are really gonna have to work to make Flash a reasonable content platform on mobile devices... but I don't think it'll see any threat on Desktops/Laptops - at least for a long time.

Depends how HTML5 develops as a platform.  It's not even finalised yet though, and if anything, HTML5 is probably slower than Flash...

(21/05/2010 01:26 AM)ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:  Eh, depends how Google does it with Youtube.  If they encode VP8 better than they encode H.264, it'll appear superior to end users - those that actually notice a difference and care.

Youtube uses baseline H.264 via x264, if I remember correctly.

According to DS, baseline H.264 is only slightly worse than VP8 (spec wise), and x264 is a very good implementation (so it might be able to make up for baseline being worse).  Also, considering the current VP8 encoder is significantly slower than x264 at encoding stuff, that doesn't help (ie. they'd probably have to use faster settings compared to x264).

(This post was last modified: 21/05/2010 05:14 AM by Assassinator.)

(21/05/2010 02:30 AM)Assassinator Wrote:  ie. they'd probably have to use faster settings compared to x264

Not so sure about that.
Google can very easily just throw more hardware in.  Considering the $124 million or whatever they spent in this acquisition etc, more hardware is a small price to pay.

To be fair though, this projects only just got off the ground.

DS Wrote:I’m not going to go easy on On2; they’ve had (at least) 6 years to work on VP8, and a much larger dev team than x264’s to boot.

=_=

Lets hope it'll benefit from being open source.

Oh but..

Quote:Update: it seems that Google is not open to changing the spec: it is apparently “final”, complete with all its flaws.

Stop hurting yourself Google

Edit: Oh, well, err, Apple you better sort out the HTML5 support you got there, cause it's running like spoon - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfmbZkqORX4

(This post was last modified: 21/05/2010 03:11 AM by S7*.)