Internet Explorer 9 to Support VP8

By | May 19, 2010 | 20 Comments

Internet Explorer 9 to Support VP8Earlier today, Google has announced a developer preview of WebM, which is essentially an open source media format, designed for World Wide Web, that uses VP8 codec.

In response to such announcement, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer General Manager, Dean Hachamovitch said: “In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support playback of H.264 video as well as VP8 video when the user has installed a VP8 codec on Windows” … “We want to be clear about our intent to support the same markup in the open and interoperable web, and to do so in a manner consistent with our view broad view of safety and security”

The WebM is already supported by 40+ companies, such as: Mozilla, Opera, Google, Logitech and many more.

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Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

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  • Dels

    VP8 codec? never heard that before… better check wikipedia for that, i hope it more efficient and less memory usage compared to h264/x264

    • Somebody

      It was developed by On2 Technologies which was bought by Google and now Google has decided to open source the codec. Mozilla, Chrome and Opera have released a development version of their respective browsers supporting this. I think this is great news for open video. I just hope Youtube moves to this format soon and then we can get rid of H264. I’m thinking Apple will hold out for sometime in supporting this, but eventually everyone will fall in line and we can have royalty free video on the web.

    • Ichann

      Im sorry but that will never be more efficient than h264.

      Vorbis is just darn too ….. (encode with it and you’ll see)

      It funny that Google should invest in this project and have Youtube use avc instead.

      Kinda ironic

      • Ichann

        Me say rong codec sowy.

      • nvm

        The codec is VP8, not Theora.

        Also, YouTube is already encoding all new videos in the WebM format. Ironic? Heh. Fail.

        • Ichann

          Yes it is.

          I don’t know. Maybe you like doing repetitive redundant activities daily. I don’t.

          Probably you’ll argue that this is differant and Google has manpower and resources. That may be true, but it really isnt a efficient process is it?

          So Google are implementing it now are they? Yes I have tried it. But is it better than H264? Just because they started implementing it doesnt make it the correct choice. Still waiting for 1080 or even 720p videos.

          How long do you think it will take until all this will be finished being implemented? Heck there other HTML5 project isnt completely finished yet.

          BTW. I already said I stated the wrong codec.
          PS: Let me know when it is ready for the masses.

          PHAIL

          • nvm

            Your long rant didn’t address the bottom line: There is nothing “ironic” here, because YT is already encoding WebM videos, contrary to your claim.

            WebM is better than H.264 baseline, which is the only think you can use if you want all that much-touted hardware support.

          • Ichann

            Baseline, Baseline.

            Who the hell uses baseline anyway?

            Mobile devices?

            What else?

            contrary to your claim

            Guess you should re-read my long rant.

            Yes I have tried it. But is it better than H264? ?

  • Tiago Sá

    VP8 is more efficient than H264, despite what some people may be saying. It’s true that H264 can deliver better quality per pixel than VP8, but the most widely used “mode” (or whatever) of H264 (baseline) cannot, and that’s the biggest weapon of H264, not the best “mode”.

    • Ichann

      Is Theadora and VP8 completely differant. How comparable are they?

      I tried Thedora in a .ogv container and despite what settings I used, often times it was double the size and had worse quality than h.264 on comparable settings.

      MPEG 10 is a pretty sexy format and since my favourite container aka .mkv uses it I am certain it deserves the moniker “Best codec in the World”

      I am uncertain of the baselines you talk about. Do you mean profiles?
      Surely it cannot be of this baseline thing you talk about as every videos I see is outstanding (provided it is done right)

      • Dels

        theora are based on VP3 (or VP2?) project… so i think VP8 will be far superior

        • Ichann

          Sadly, I do not believe in version numbers anymore.

          In the past developers deserved incrementing their numbers in regards to software releases. Now many seem to skip that step, add a few bug fixes and announce it as a major release (I’m looking at you Google).

          Maybe I might be wrong.
          But I do know that Quantity ≠ Quality

      • Foo

        That can be affected by which encoder you’re using. I think that for the best comparison you’d want something that’s based on the latest version of libTheora (1.1.1).
        You’d also want to compare more than one clip as there may be trade-offs depending on the saturation and movements in the clip.

        What is this MPEG10 you’re talking about?? Do you mean to say MPEG-4 Part 10? Matroska, what you call “mkv”, can contain just about any combination and type of video, audio or subtitle stream.

        From a quick Google search, “for the lulz”:
        “K-lite codec pack seems to be the best codec in the world”
        Just about sums up how much worth one can put into the sentence “best in the world”…

        google MPEG-4 baseline profile -> MPEG-4 AVC#Profiles. Yikes, that sure took a lot of work…

        every videos I see is outstanding

        Time to get a pair of glasses?
        Watch-able sure, but nothing I would call “outstanding”…

        By the by, found an interesting article at Dive Into HTML5 about the video tag. I have only had a quick look, but it looks interesting enough.

        Also, Vorbis is the most awesome lossy audio codec I’ve come across. It sounds to me like it’s time for you to update your system.

        • Ichann

          For some reason I cannot post.

          Testing.

          • Ichann

            I hope this works.

          • Ichann

            Dammit dude fix this thing. I do not know if you have flood protection or something

            My reply can be found:

            http://i49.tinypic.com/2prsndy.jpg

  • nobody

    Vp8 is a patent timebomb. There are entire parts simpyly copied from h264. Only if google can cover this issue with huge lumps of moolah,then it will be free and SAFE to use as an open standard.

    Until then,it is nothing new: quality worse than h264,yet the same patent issues.

    As for vorbis ogg – it is a lo-fi audio codec,delivers best bang for buck at low bitrates,but has weak psy-acustic model and cannot compare to musepack. Only ogg advantage is that it is free,but qualitywise it is mostly meh.

    All other talks about vp8 being superior to h264 I call bullshit. This is a very badly managed release (done on purpose or by chance) of something that cannot be updated on the fly. Bitstream is closed and final,all that can change is en/decoder implementation. But entire heart of the codec is final. And it is buggy and oldschool.

    I understand why opera and mozilla jumped the wagon: no h264 (they can’t afford it) makes them doomed in the long run and they HAD to join. But if it will be it? I doubt it. Vp8 has to get HW acceleration (battery life) and that will not be that easy. Hardware industry support costs lots of money,and even if arm ‘supports’ it,it still need to deliver silicon that does the job.from words to action is a very long way,and what exactly arm gains by creating it? Nothing.

    Summing it up: nice move on google side,that will unfortunatelly change little. Botched release (buggy as hell spec),not so great product,patent issues,no hw support. ‘Free’ will not sell this one,if common folk can see a quality difference between this and h264. And they will,as vp8 is (and will be,because bitstream is closed)a worse product.

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