Apple Wary of Ogg Theora: No Agreement Yet on HTML5 Video Standard
Firefox 3.5 and Chrome already support the new video tag of the HTML5 specification. Before it can become a standard, though, more browsers makers have to agree on the codec.
The major browser vendors are having trouble agreeing on an enconding format for the new HTML<video> tag. As Ian Hickson explains in the whatwg.org mailing list, he removed the two subsections in the HTML5 spec regarding video and audio due to this nonagreement. Hickson summarizes the current situation as follows:
- Apple refuses to implement Ogg Theora in QuickTime by default in Safari, complaining of lack of hardware support and patent issues.
- Google implemented H.264 and Ogg Theora in Chrome, but can't hand off the H.264 codec license to third-party Chromium distributors from the "belief that Ogg Theora's quality-per-bit is not yet suitable for the volume handled by YouTube."
- Opera refuses to implement H.264 because of the high patent license costs.
- Mozilla is going the same route due to the costs to downstream distributors.
- Microsoft has not as yet commented on the issue.
Microsoft's noncommitment may end up making Ogg Theora the favorite for the upcoming HTML5 standard. Meanwhile, while Apple alleges having no patent claims on Ogg Theora, it fears that it may be filed against if it included the codec in QuickTime, according to an article in InfoWorld.com.
Comments
comments powered by Disqus
Issue 272/2023
Buy this issue as a PDF
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
News
-
KDE Plasma 6 Looks to Bring Basic HDR Support
The KWin piece of KDE Plasma now has HDR support and color management geared for the 6.0 release.
-
Bodhi Linux 7.0 Beta Ready for Testing
The latest iteration of the Bohdi Linux distribution is now available for those who want to experience what's in store and for testing purposes.
-
Changes Coming to Ubuntu PPA Usage
The way you manage Personal Package Archives will be changing with the release of Ubuntu 23.10.
-
AlmaLinux 9.2 Now Available for Download
AlmaLinux has been released and provides a free alternative to upstream Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
-
An Immutable Version of Fedora Is Under Consideration
For anyone who's a fan of using immutable versions of Linux, the Fedora team is currently considering adding a new spin called Fedora Onyx.
-
New Release of Br OS Includes ChatGPT Integration
Br OS 23.04 is now available and is geared specifically toward web content creation.
-
Command-Line Only Peropesis 2.1 Available Now
The latest iteration of Peropesis has been released with plenty of updates and introduces new software development tools.
-
TUXEDO Computers Announces InfinityBook Pro 14
With the new generation of their popular InfinityBook Pro 14, TUXEDO upgrades its ultra-mobile, powerful business laptop with some impressive specs.
-
Linux Kernel 6.3 Release Includes Interesting Features
Although it's not a Long Term Release candidate, Linux 6.3 includes features that will benefit end users.
-
Arch-Based blendOS Features Cool Trick
If you're looking for a Linux distribution that blends Linux, Android, and web apps together, blendOS might be what you're looking for.
XiphQT solves that problem
<a href="http://www.xiph.org/quicktime">XiphQT</a> is legally free from Xiph and adds support for Ogg/Theora/Vorbis(Speex/Flac...) to Quicktime - encoding as well as decoding, and that includes HTML5 <video> and <audio> tags, allowing Apple users to participate with the rest of us.
I'd add here (as I seem to be compelled to do everywhere this comes up) that there <em>IS</em> also a <audio> tag to go with <video>. Sure, it's not unreasonable to argue that Theora isn't quite as pretty as patent-encumbered "de-facto" video standard of H.264, the "de-facto" standard for audio right now is MP3, and Vorbis <em>IS</em> a genuine quality improvement over it.
Also, It's a heck of a lot easier for participants on the net to produce their own audio than to produce video. While news stories are busy focussing on HTML5 as "internet TV" because of the <video> tag, I'm hoping for a wealth of peer-produced audio content to start showing up.