blog/The_video_format_most_supported_in_web_browsers_.html

   1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
   2         "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
   3 <html>
   4  <head>
   5   <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: The video format most supported in web browsers?</title>
   6   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/style.css">
   7  </head>
   8  <body>
   9
  10  <div class="title">
  11   <h1>
  12        <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  13
  14   </h1>
  15
  16  </div>
  17
  18
  19  <div class="entry">
  20   <div class="title">The video format most supported in web browsers?</div>
  21   <div class="date">2011-01-16 00:20</div>
  22   <div class="body">
  23 <p>The video format struggle on the web continues, and the three
  24 contenders seem to be Ogg Theora, H.264 and WebM.  Most video sites
  25 seem to use H.264, while others use Ogg Theora.  Interestingly enough,
  26 the comments I see give me the feeling that a lot of people believe
  27 H.264 is the most supported video format in browsers, but according to
  28 the Wikipedia article on
  29 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">HTML5 video</a>,
  30 this is not true.  Check out the nice table of supprted formats in
  31 different browsers there.  The format supported by most browsers is
  32 Ogg Theora, supported by released versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google
  33 Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Konqueror, Epiphany, Origyn Web Browser and
  34 BOLT browser, while not supported by Internet Explorer nor Safari.
  35 The runner up is WebM supported by released versions of Google Chrome
  36 Chromium Opera and Origyn Web Browser, and test versions of Mozilla
  37 Firefox.  H.264 is supported by released versions of Safari, Origyn
  38 Web Browser and BOLT browser, and the test version of Internet
  39 Explorer.  Those wanting Ogg Theora support in Internet Explorer and
  40 Safari can install plugins to get it.</p>
  41
  42 <p>To me, the simple conclusion from this is that to reach most users
  43 without any extra software installed, one uses Ogg Theora with the
  44 HTML5 video tag.   Of course to reach all those without a browser
  45 handling HTML5, one need fallback mechanisms.  In
  46 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>, we provide first fallback to a
  47 plugin capable of playing MPEG1 video, and those without such support
  48 we have a second fallback to the Cortado java applet playing Ogg
  49 Theora.  This seem to work quite well, as can be seen in an <a
  50 href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20110111-semantic-web/">example
  51 from last week</a>.</p>
  52
  53 <p>The reason Ogg Theora is the most supported format, and H.264 is
  54 the least supported is simple.  Implementing and using H.264
  55 require royalty payment to MPEG-LA, and the terms of use from MPEG-LA
  56 are incompatible with free software licensing.  If you believed H.264
  57 was without royalties and license terms, check out
  58 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
  59 Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps.</p>
  60
  61 <p>A incomplete list of sites providing video in Ogg Theora is
  62 available from
  63 <a href="http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/List_of_Theora_videos">the
  64 Xiph.org wiki</a>, if you want to have a look.  I'm not aware of a
  65 similar list for WebM nor H.264.</p>
  66
  67 <p>Update 2011-01-16 09:40: A question from Tollef on IRC made me
  68 realise that I failed to make it clear enough this text is about the
  69 &lt;video&gt; tag support in browsers and not the video support
  70 provided by external plugins like the Flash plugins.</p>
  71 </div>
  72
  73   <div class="tags">Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.</div>
  74
  75   </div>
  76
  77
  78
  79
  80
  81
  82 <div id="sidebar">
  83
  84 <h2>Archive</h2>
  85 <ul>
  86
  87 <li>2011
  88 <ul>
  89
  90 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
  91
  92 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
  93
  94 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
  95
  96 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
  97
  98 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
  99
 100 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 101
 102 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (2)</a></li>
 103
 104 </ul></li>
 105
 106 <li>2010
 107 <ul>
 108
 109 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 110
 111 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 112
 113 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 114
 115 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 116
 117 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 118
 119 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
 120
 121 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 122
 123 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
 124
 125 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 126
 127 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 128
 129 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 130
 131 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 132
 133 </ul></li>
 134
 135 <li>2009
 136 <ul>
 137
 138 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 139
 140 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 141
 142 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 143
 144 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 145
 146 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 147
 148 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 149
 150 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 151
 152 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 153
 154 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 155
 156 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 157
 158 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 159
 160 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 161
 162 </ul></li>
 163
 164 <li>2008
 165 <ul>
 166
 167 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 168
 169 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 170
 171 </ul></li>
 172
 173 </ul>
 174
 175
 176
 177 <h2>Tags</h2>
 178 <ul>
 179
 180  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
 181
 182  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 183
 184  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 185
 186  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (2)</a></li>
 187
 188  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (10)</a></li>
 189
 190  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (49)</a></li>
 191
 192  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (63)</a></li>
 193
 194  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (7)</a></li>
 195
 196  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (91)</a></li>
 197
 198  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (11)</a></li>
 199
 200  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (11)</a></li>
 201
 202  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (9)</a></li>
 203
 204  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (15)</a></li>
 205
 206  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
 207
 208  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (4)</a></li>
 209
 210  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 211
 212  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (12)</a></li>
 213
 214  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (127)</a></li>
 215
 216  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (118)</a></li>
 217
 218  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 219
 220  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (21)</a></li>
 221
 222  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (38)</a></li>
 223
 224  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
 225
 226  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
 227
 228  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (4)</a></li>
 229
 230  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 231
 232  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (23)</a></li>
 233
 234  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (3)</a></li>
 235
 236  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (24)</a></li>
 237
 238  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (1)</a></li>
 239
 240  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (2)</a></li>
 241
 242  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (8)</a></li>
 243
 244  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (20)</a></li>
 245
 246  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (1)</a></li>
 247
 248  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (15)</a></li>
 249
 250 </ul>
 251
 252 </div>
 253  </body>
 254 </html>