Earlier this week we reported that Google is ending end support for H.264 on its Chrome browser. The company has reiterated its plans to push its own open WebM video codec via Flash-like plug-ins for Safari and Internet Explorer users so it can ship free platforms without incurring external licensing fees.

The H.264/AVC codec was jointly developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). H.264 is used in such applications as players for Blu-ray Discs, videos from YouTube and the iTunes Store, web software such as the Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft Silverlight, broadcast services for DVB and SBTVD, direct-broadcast satellite television services, cable television services, and real-time videoconferencing.

In an online blog (http://macte.ch/AxBRZ), Google says: "This week’s announcement was solely related to the HTML tag, which is part of the emerging set of standards commonly referred to as “HTML5.” We believe there is great promise in the tag and want to see it succeed. As it stands, the organizations involved in defining the HTML video standard are at an impasse. There is no agreement on which video codec should be the baseline standard. Firefox and Opera support the open WebM and Ogg Theora codecs and will not support H.264 due to its licensing requirements; Safari and IE9 support H.264. With this status quo, all publishers and developers using the tag will be forced to support multiple formats.

"This is not an ideal situation and we want to see a viable baseline codec that all browsers can support. It is clear that there will not be agreement to specify H.264 as the baseline codec in the HTML video standard due to its licensing requirements. Furthermore, we genuinely believe that core web technologies need to be open and community developed to enable the same great innovation that has brought the web to where it is today. These facts led us to join the efforts of the web community and invest in an open alternative, WebM."

Does this mean you'll no longer be able to play H.264 videos in Chrome?
Google says H.264 plays an important role in video and the vast majority of the H.264 videos on the web today are viewed in plug-ins such as Flash and Silverlight. "These plug-ins are and will continue to be supported in Chrome," the company says. "Our announcement was only related to the tag, which is part of the emerging HTML platform. While the HTML video platform offers great promise, few sites use it today and therefore few users will be immediately impacted by this change."

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Apple apparently likes H.264. The company says QuickTime "features advanced video compression technology called H.264 to deliver brilliant, crisp HD video using less bandwidth and storage."

Apple vs. Google over H.264? Apple vs. Adobe over Flash? Let the format wars begin.

-- Dennis Sellers