Microsoft bolts HTML5 video onto Chrome for Windows 7 users

Network World ^ | 2 Feb 2011 | Jon Brodkin

[for-q-clinton]

Microsoft has released an HTML5 video-player extension for the Chrome browser to counteract Google's decision to drop support for the most widely used HTML5 video format.

Conversely, Microsoft has also promised to support Internet Explorer 9 users who want to view videos in the Google-backed WebM format.

Google recently decided to strip out support for the H.264 video codec from the Chrome browser, even though it's more popular than Google's own WebM.

[for-q-clinton]

Too funny...microsoft is playing the good guys this time to google's evil guy.

Oh the irony of it all.

[for-q-clinton]

tech ping please

[WHBates]

Both are racing to the top of my most unliked list.

[Myrddin]

H.264 is commonly used for video support for things like Skype and Ekiga. The codecs are going to be on the machine. It's Google's loss if they choose not to support it. Folks will use something other than Chrome. Stupid move. As it is, I'm displeased with my Red Hat Extremely Lame 5.4 server for being so far behind that it can't even run a current version of Chrome. Conversely, my Fedora 14 machines are working like a charm.

[4rcane]

thats why competition is so great. It keep the others in line, to do the right thing

[Nick Danger]

When I get to be King, people in the tech press who treat HTML5 and H.264 as if they were the same thing will be turned into newts.

Also, any of them who refer to H.264 -- which is patented and licensed for royalties -- as an "open standard" will be fed haggis until they explode.

[ShadowAce]

[for-q-clinton]

You may want to also say that anyone that refers to WebM as an open standard will be fed haggis until they explode.

H.264 charges royalties to companies that CHARGE for content. I wonder why google would try to force another codec on the net? Hmmmm.....hmmmmmm.....maybe google TV and youtube? Maybe google wants to keep all the money for themselves?

H.264 is free for the typical user.

[roamer_1]

[...] will be fed haggis [...] You fiend! That is simply beyond the pale.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Google, Adobe, Microsoft, Apple - what a tangled web in terms of Flash, HTML5 and whatever all else is out there. BTW good to see Nick Danger back - it’s been awhile.

[for-q-clinton]

you forgot silverlight :-)

[Nick Danger]

H.264 is free for the typical user.

So was GIF, until Unisys decided to start enforcing their patents. All of a sudden they were demanding $5 and $10 thousand fees from people who had images on their web sites.

So was MP3, until they too started demanding royalties.

MPEG-LA, which owns H.264, has been very open about the fact that the license terms will change every year, and that things that are free of charge now might not be in the future. Why do we want to encourage widespread adoption of another GIF-like trap that could snare everyone in Royalty Hell a few years down the road?

If we'd never seen this trick before, we could say "shame on them." But we have seen it. Twice. So this time it's gonna be "shame on us."