h.264

Google video effort to be dubbed WebM Project?

It's widely expected that Google will use this week's I/O conference to announce how it hopes to rewrite the rules of Web video by releasing its newly acquired video technology as open-source software.

Now, one analyst has offered a name for the plan: the WebM Project.

Dan Rayburn, a Frost & Sullivan analyst and executive vice president of StreamingMedia.com, said in a blog post Tuesday that he was tipped off about the project name and Web address.

The WebM Project name has an "under construction" Web site that was registered April 28 by Google. … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1219: DARPA requests transformer flying cars. So do we. (podcast)

The folks who built the Internet are thinking it could be a great idea if flying cars were available in military zones to help extract soldiers quickly from sensitive locations. And they should transform. So, awesome future on our way. Plus, Apple sells 1 million iPads, we try to untangle the h.264 codec mess, and the future of the Internet is cloudy.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1219

Apple sells 1,000,000 iPads in revolution’s first month http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/03/apple-sells-1-000-000-ipads-in-revolutions-first-month/… Read more

Patent challenge looming for open-source codecs?

If authentic, a new e-mail from Steve Jobs indicates that Apple and Microsoft--of all bedfellows--could be preparing to challenge the validity of open-source video codecs.

Jobs' e-mail to Hugo Roy of the Free Software Foundation Europe, coupled with a similarly worded announcement from Microsoft on Friday, is a shot across the bow of backers of the open-source Ogg Theora video codec, used by Mozilla to bring HTML5 video technology to Firefox. Both Apple and Microsoft plan to use the h.264 codec in their HTML5 strategy, which is governed by a licensing body called MPEG LA. Apple and Microsoft, along with a host of tech companies, … Read more

Microsoft takes H.264 stand in Web video debate

Deepening a rift in a key Web standards debate, Microsoft said Thursday that Internet Explorer 9 will support the variety of Web video Apple built into Safari but not the one embraced by Firefox and Opera.

"In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only," Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch said in a blog post. His reasons for the support: the format is widely used in the computing industry, from video cameras to Google's YouTube, it benefits from hardware decoding support that improves performance, and there are questions about the rights to … Read more

With IE9, Web video issue remains deadlocked

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview release on Tuesday sent a strong message to Web programmers that a host of standards will become safer to use. But in the case of one standard, Web video, Microsoft arguably pushed one controversial impasse deeper into gridlock.

The standard in question involves Web video that doesn't require a plug-in such as Adobe Systems' Flash or Microsoft's Silverlight. It's one of the big elements of HTML5--the Hypertext Markup Language standard now under development and aiming to expand the abilities of Web pages and Web applications.

The rough version of IE9 … Read more

Is H.264 a legal minefield for video pros?

If you're a digital-video professional--the sort of person who records weddings, sells stock footage, or edits B-roll--chances are good you deal with the H.264 video encoding technology. But after reading software license agreements, you might well wonder if you have rights to do so.

A recent blog post by Harvard Ph.D. student Ben Schwartz, including the provocative phrase "Final Cut Pro Hobbyist," put the spotlight on license terms in Apple's video-editing software by questioning when professionals may use H.264 video. A similar "personal and non-commercial activity" license requirement appears in Adobe … Read more

Built-in video arrives in Opera beta

With the release of the Opera 10.5 beta, a fourth browser is available that can play video built directly into Web pages with no plug-ins required.

The HTML5 Web pages standard under development lets programmers build video into Web pages so browsers don't need a plug-in such as Adobe Systems' Flash to play it--the way they've been accustomed to doing with JPEG images for years. However, Opera's arrival isn't likely to bridge a video technology divide that's a serious hurdle for adoption of HTML5 video.

Opera 10.5, like Mozilla's Firefox, can play … Read more

Web video gets H.264 royalty reprieve

In a decision that deprives open-source foes of some rhetorical fodder, the group that licenses patents for the widely used H.264 video-encoding technology chose to renew a streaming-media freebie through 2015.

MPEG LA licenses more than 1,000 H.264-related patents on behalf of 26 companies that hold the patents. The group's existing policy, which runs through the end of 2010, has been not to charge royalties to Internet sites that streamed video using the technology--as long as the video was free for viewers.

Many have been waiting to hear what MPEG LA would announce for the licensing … Read more

HTML vs. Flash: Can a turf war be avoided?

A difference of opinion among developers has become a high-profile debate over the future of the Web: should programmers continue using Adobe Systems' Flash or embrace newer Web technology instead?

The debate has gone on for years, but last week's debut of Apple's iPad--which like the iPhone doesn't support Flash--turned up the heat. Before that, Adobe had been saying with some restraint that it's happy to bring Flash to the iPhone when Apple gives the go-ahead.

But Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch took the gloves off Tuesday with a blog post that said Apple's reluctance … Read more