Microsoft sides with Apple, embraces H.264 as HTML5 web video standard

By on Apr 30, 2010 at 2:27 PM
Services April 30, 2010

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Outside of the debate on the future of Flash and Flash video on the Internet is a separate but related battle over the video standard that will be supported by HTML5. On one side of the battle line is Firefox and Opera which has pledged support for the Ogg Theora video standard, and on the other side is Apple which has been pushing for H.264. Apple is no longer alone in this fight and now has an unlikely ally in Microsoft which announced on Thursday that IE 9 will support H.264 for HTML5 video. Ogg supporters are understandably disappointed with this decision as the two computing giants may now have the combined power to squash Ogg Theora support in these other browser platforms. Look for things to get messier before they get better as Google is expected to debut its own On2-derived V8 video protocol at Google I/O next month.

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  • loki

    adobe what? adobe who?

    thats right… nothing to say eh?

    lol, just messing. Thhis does change the gameplan no? Interested to see what adobe has to say.

  • B-Rose

    Is it really too much to ask for HTML5 to support all of these formats? Seriously? Are we living in 2010 or what? I want options.

  • EA

    Is it the end of the world already?

  • miguel alvarez

    Where’s Big-Mouth Jill now?

    Bitch. :)

  • Eric K

    supporting html5 for every site CAN get complicated as I doubt there is just an “HTML5″ push button for everything iphone flash needed

  • Versed

    Well, all I can say, the long term prospects for Adobe Flash don’t look good. And honestly I mixed. Basically for better or worse, to large companies are basically dictating standards. Already big sites like NYT and others are going this route. And why? Fine if thats what they want, but not so it can be seen on an iphone or ipad. I also don’t think HTML5 is a bad thing, but I don’t care to be dictated too.

  • Crack it

    Microapple the computer dictators in a world where PC’s are as expensive as MACs OHHHH NO!

  • maxpayne79

    wow, if i was an apple fanboy (nerd) i’d find that Microsoftified Apple logo so offensive that id be actually compelled to file a human rights complaint. But…im really high right now so im gonna finish typing this and see what’s in the fridge. good night. :)

  • Ray S.

    Lest there be any confusion:

    HTML 5 does not specify any format at all, so it’s not a question of what it supports or doesn’t. (At first Ogg/Theora was to be the specified format, but Apple leaned hard enough to get that removed.)

    That means that the formats to be supported are whatever the browser publishers feel like supporting. Now that MS and Apple are in unison on supporting only H.264–a proprietary format–while Mozilla properly refuses to encumber its free and open products with a very non-free codec, and Google, as of this moment, has yet another idea (a better one, but still), it’s turning into a pretty dizzy game.

    The Internet itself may remain an open and free medium, but when people find they’re frequently unable to watch videos on the web unless they’ve paid the necessary tribute to Redmond and/or Cupertino, that may turn into a pretty empty dream.

  • abdul basit

    i now hates microsoft as well as apple, coz they think that we are dependents, and we cant have other solutions besides these two. Now as the future world is of interactive media. They want to rule that industry too by crushing adobe and other vendors. Giving us the solutions they want. So plz back off….. coz we have linux and we can do whatever we want. This is the time to have computers other than Pc and Mac. Somebody should start this new line…….

  • abdul basit

    i wish commodore 64 ppls to start a new line of computers….. like they did in early 80s

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