[Foundation-l] No default codec for <video> and <audio> in HTML5

[Hay (Husky)]

On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 1:26 PM, Amir E. Aharoni<amir.aharoni at gmail.com> wrote:
> Maybe you are joking and i am missing it, but that is indeed sad -
> Nokia, Apple, Microsoft and many other companies really like non-open
> standards and dislike open ones. In the particular case of video, they
> all probably hate OGG, because it is not DRM-friendly.
It's not a DRM issue afaik. For Apple it's mostly because they have
heavily invested in H264 as their video codec of choice (think
hardware chips in iPods and iPhones) and because of the 'uncertain
patent landscape' surrounding Theora (just restating what Hixie
already said on the WHATWG mailing list).

For Microsoft it's a completely different issue. Their strategy is
frustrating the HTML5 process by ignoring any requests for comments on
HTML5-related issues because they want Silverlight to be the de-facto
language for writing rich internet apps. Also, any embracing of HTML5
on the MS side would mean that they venture onto Google's terrain, who
is almighty when it comes to using the browser for RIA's.

We do have a somewhat important role in this whole debate, because we
are one of the few major websites that have embraced OGG for many
years, and using it as our sole way of displaying video. When, at a
certain point in time, all WP articles have beautiful OGG video's
using the <video> element IE and Safari users might start to complain
about the lack of native support in their browsers, forcing MS and
Apple to support <video> and Theora in their browsers.

But that might be wishful thinking :)

-- Hay