Firefox will support VP8 (aka WebM)

http://hacks.mozilla.org/2010/05/firefox-youtube-and-webm/

by AndrewHampton • 16 years ago

83 16 16 years ago

hacks.mozilla.org

neilc• 16 years ago

The VP8 codec represents a vast improvement in quality-per-bit over Theora and is comparable in quality to H.264.

Interesting to see Mozilla support the idea that Theora provides markedly worse quality-per-bit than H.264.

natmaster• 16 years ago

I think before they were just claiming that Theora's quality was "good enough".

w1ntermute• 16 years ago

So WebM support won't be added to Firefox 3.7?

mbrubeck• 16 years ago

There will be no Firefox 3.7; it has been renamed to Firefox 4.

WebM may also be backported to Firefox 3.6, but people inside Mozilla are just starting to talk about that so there are no firm plans yet.

jrockway• 16 years ago

Well, that's the end of H.264. Knowing that Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe won't be getting licensing fees for most Internet video is just wonderful.

tel3• 16 years ago

The post by Jason Garrett-Glaser (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1361442) suggests this move might be strange for Mozilla since there's a high chance that VP8 will be patent trolled soon.

tzs2• 16 years ago

Any particular reason to believe a patent troll will be involved, as opposed to a company suing over patents that it practices?

tel3• 16 years ago

I suppose I didn't mean "patent troll", but instead spoke with a growing distaste for the way patent law is practiced. When I read that article I found difficulty locating where I stood between calling something a compression technique and just... math.

ZeroGravitas• 16 years ago

Well if they do anything related to the web in their line of business they're going to hampered by Google withdrawing the patent rights to use VP8 when they sue.

Does Apple or any other consumer electronics manufacturer in MPEG-LA really want to be left out on the cold on that?

This is just a special case of why Non-Practising Entities (i.e. trolls) are the terrorists of asymmetrical patent warfare.

blasdel• 16 years ago

Will they start using GStreamer in Firefox like in one of their Fennec branches, or will they just add libvpx along with the existing liboggplay and implement their own half-baked media handling layer?

doublec• 16 years ago

We went for the "own half-baked media handling layer". liboggplay is no longer used in Firefox trunk btw.

varjag2• 16 years ago

There is a lesson in it to folks who claimed Mozilla should just swallow and go H.264.

evgen• 16 years ago

And when Mozilla is sued by MPEG-LA for patent infringement will you say the same thing? Of the companies who say they will support this codec so far I think Opera is weakest and will be sued first, but Mozilla is domestic so they might be the one to take one for the team...

varjag2• 16 years ago

Google will most likely be sued first.

Also, it's not like there wasn't ever a debate as to how much Theora really is patent-clean.. So among the three it is clearly the best choice so far.

Firefox will support VP8 (aka WebM)

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