blog/data/2011-01-15-video-standard.txt

   1 Title: The video format most supported in web browsers?
   2 Tags: english, nuug, standard, video
   3 Date: 2011-01-16 00:20
   4
   5 <p>The video format struggle on the web continues, and the three
   6 contenders seem to be Ogg Theora, H.264 and WebM.  Most video sites
   7 seem to use H.264, while others use Ogg Theora.  Interestingly enough,
   8 the comments I see give me the feeling that a lot of people believe
   9 H.264 is the most supported video format in browsers, but according to
  10 the Wikipedia article on
  11 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">HTML5 video</a>,
  12 this is not true.  Check out the nice table of supprted formats in
  13 different browsers there.  The format supported by most browsers is
  14 Ogg Theora, supported by released versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google
  15 Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Konqueror, Epiphany, Origyn Web Browser and
  16 BOLT browser, while not supported by Internet Explorer nor Safari.
  17 The runner up is WebM supported by released versions of Google Chrome
  18 Chromium Opera and Origyn Web Browser, and test versions of Mozilla
  19 Firefox.  H.264 is supported by released versions of Safari, Origyn
  20 Web Browser and BOLT browser, and the test version of Internet
  21 Explorer.  Those wanting Ogg Theora support in Internet Explorer and
  22 Safari can install plugins to get it.</p>
  23
  24 <p>To me, the simple conclusion from this is that to reach most users
  25 without any extra software installed, one uses Ogg Theora with the
  26 HTML5 video tag.   Of course to reach all those without a browser
  27 handling HTML5, one need fallback mechanisms.  In
  28 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>, we provide first fallback to a
  29 plugin capable of playing MPEG1 video, and those without such support
  30 we have a second fallback to the Cortado java applet playing Ogg
  31 Theora.  This seem to work quite well, as can be seen in an <a
  32 href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20110111-semantic-web/">example
  33 from last week</a>.</p>
  34
  35 <p>The reason Ogg Theora is the most supported format, and H.264 is
  36 the least supported is simple.  Implementing and using H.264
  37 require royalty payment to MPEG-LA, and the terms of use from MPEG-LA
  38 are incompatible with free software licensing.  If you believed H.264
  39 was without royalties and license terms, check out
  40 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
  41 Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps.</p>
  42
  43 <p>A incomplete list of sites providing video in Ogg Theora is
  44 available from
  45 <a href="http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/List_of_Theora_videos">the
  46 Xiph.org wiki</a>, if you want to have a look.  I'm not aware of a
  47 similar list for WebM nor H.264.</p>
  48
  49 <p>Update 2011-01-16 09:40: A question from Tollef on IRC made me
  50 realise that I failed to make it clear enough this text is about the
  51 &lt;video&gt; tag support in browsers and not the video support
  52 provided by external plugins like the Flash plugins.</p>