Google owns their own media codec like H.264, it is now called WebM (formerly VP8). Google initially stirred the pot when they announced WebM would be open and free to use (royalty free) unlike H.264 which is owned by Mpeg-LA The move from Google caused Mpeg-LA to relax the licensing and royalty for the H.264 codec but many saw this as a bait and switch. Get users to adopt H.264 thus further proliferating the codec and then hit the market with the license fees. Nonetheless H.264 was already widely in use and with iPhones and iPads flying off the shelf, it is the codec wrapped in Mp4 that allows one to view videos on these mobile devices. NOTE: Apple made it abundantly clear; their devices would not run Flash, so files with the .flv extension will not play, whereas files with the extension .mp4 (H.264) will.
Browsers begin to adopt HTML5
With great promise for new development and standardization of the <video> tag, HTML5 was announced as a new standard with the exception of the video tag. As a non-technical backgrounder, we use browsers everyday without giving any thought to how or why we are able to see images within our preferred browser. That is because the <image> tag was adopted with standards such as .jpg, .gif .bmp etc. Prior to a standard the "old school" world wide web users had to run a picture viewer that could interpret the file type and render this into an image. Netscape Navigator 1.0 made it simple for a new user by doing this through the HTML tag which told the browser that "filename.jpg" was an image and it should be displayed in the assigned area.
A footnote: At the browser level the software has the ability to recognize the tag <video> and play a format called Theora (ogv, ogg). This format is open source and free as it is unencumbered by patent licensing restrictions. Critically it currently falls below the performance standard of H.264
HTML5 would eliminate this. All browsers, regardless of MacOS, Windows, Linux etc. would play video without plugins or proprietary applications. This would undoubtedly fuel advancements and move the technology forward dramatically. However, by not adopting the video tag standard it left the Behemoths of the online world to battle it out.
- Apple and Safari (Macbook, iPhone and iPad) have taken a hard stance adopting H.264. There are many economic reasons for this including a number of patents around the format.
- Firefox and Opera support Theora and the open source ogv format
- Microsoft IE9 has added support for H.264 and WebM
- Google Chrome supports Theora, WebM and currently H.264*
* Google has announced in a blog post that they will be dropping H.264
Why the consumer should care:
Consumers will spend upwards of $600 for a mobile device (tablet, phone, e-reader etc.) There is no standard set for the video delivery to these devices. In order to keep current website and online media developers have used H.264 with a "fallback" to Flash to cover 99.9% of all scenarios. This makes the devices capable of viewing high quality streaming video in both live and archived formats.
Consumers are embracing online delivery of TV and Movies (Hulu, Netflix etc.) and the market has responded to this by introducing devices known as set top boxes (STB) which interface your TV with the Internet and allow the viewer to control the screen with a simple remote. Game consoles (Xbox, PS3, Wii) also have the ability to play online media in multiple formats including H.264
Could your device soon be obsolete? By removing H.264 from the Chrome browser (Google's web browser) this signals the ultimate battle line; Google Vs Apple. Google claims the move is about open development and innovation and by supporting WebM and Theora (both open and free) this will align Firefox, Opera and Chrome. This leaves Apple as the champion for H.264 / Mp4 (again Flash is not in the picture). Microsoft had interestingly become the diplomat. IE9 has added support for WebM and a Firefox plugin for H.264 as well as continuing to nurture the often overlooked Silverlight* media suite
* Silverlight supports digital rights management (DRM) and as a result becomes essential to studios and TV networks when online delivery of premium content is concerned.
Google's Android OS takes over smartphone OS. Android OS is gaining enormous adoption in the smartphone space and has recently rivaled iOS as the top OS in use. Apple still controls the majority of hardware but Android is the OS across more phones such as Samsung and HTC. Android is powerful yet light, making it ideal for other smart devices such as your TV, car, and home appliances. All these smart wired devices would of course incorporate video streaming as a feature. In order to operate within the limited power requirements video would need to be supported at the browser level, HTML5 and WebM being the logical architecture and delivery.
Conculsions:
Google may be provoking the patent lawsuit which would involve Mpeg-LA and Apple, whereby standardization would occur if Google was found to be clear of any patent infringements. Hardware device manufacturers would be clear to invest in the adoption of WebM and to a lesser degree Theora. Apple and Safari would then be more or less forced to comply or risk alienating themselves as "us against the world"
Google has a lawsuit with Oracle over their Andriod OS which uses Java. Android OS is an essential component to the proliferation of WebM. Google may be pushing all these to a head thereby clearing the path for the next generation of development.
Google's philosophy would appear to be the driver behind all these moves. If successful it would be true that the future development of video would open and this would drive advancement. It would also be true that Google would have significant control of almost every aspect of the online environment (search, mail, mobile, video), as a result Google would know our every online move and behavior.
Microsoft does not appear to be in any position to challenge the status quo. Windows 7 mobile has a mere 1% of the share and while Windows OS is still miles ahead of anyone else, PC sales growth is more than 7% below projections. The Microsoft Keynote at CES 2011 mainly addresses Win Mobile 7 and XBox - Kinect. Nothing about Windows 8 or Windows TV.
Summary: Hold off buying any gadget of significant price, that is unless you are okay with having a short life span with that device in order to stay with the curve. I am of the opinion that we will see 18 - 24 months of frustration at the developer level as it pertains to online accessibility to video and the coveted TVEverywhere ubiquity. That does not mean that one cannot accomplish the 3-screen objective for video viewing. For under $100 you can get a Roku device which will let you dabble in online media to TV. The iPhone, iPad and recent Android based smartphones will play Mp4 video and there are workarounds so that non Flash based content will stream live and on-demand. Of course the desktop is where it all started and if you are prepared to update, install and uninstall browsers for the next while you will get a sense of what is coming. Meanwhile, we the consumers will have to wait a while longer as business interests worth 100s of billions of dollars are fought out in the courts and in the boardrooms. CEO's egos are at stake after all and I would not want to bet against Steve Jobs. In any case it is going to be one hell of a fight and at some point we the consumer will be told what to do, what to buy and how to behave with our new toys.
1 comment:
Thanks for writing that David. Very insightful.
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