Google’s decision to drop support for native playback of H.264 on the web has wide-reaching implications for the future of internet video. Here are the main talking points.
Open and closed
Despite insisting that it is dropping H.264 because it only wants to support open standards — in this case WebM and Ogg Theora — Google will continue to support several closed formats, notably Flash but also MP3 and AAC for audio.
Adobe delight
As a result Adobe is the big winner — the only way Chrome, Firefox and Opera users will be able to view H.264 video will be via Flash, which Google has committed to continuing to support.
Flash, not cash
Content providers who have encoded in H.264 will be reluctant to provide WebM/Ogg Theora streams at an additional encoding, storage and streaming costs, when they can simply wrap their existing H.264 video in Flash for systems that do not support native playback.
Feel the quality
Video encoded in H.264 is of a higher quality than the rival formats, another reason why content providers may be reluctant to re-encode.
Patently unclear
Content providers will also be reluctant to adopt a format with an unclear patent situation. H.264 is jointly-licensed by all the companies with related patents; there is no such indemnity in WebM or Ogg Theora against potential lawsuits from those same firms. Common consensus is that WebM and/or Ogg Theora almost certainly violate some of those patents.
On the road
H.264 is essential for mobile video, since it is the only format for which there are dedicated, hardware decoders that allow for smooth video playback while preserving battery life. It is interesting to note that while Google is ditching native H.264 in Chrome, it has made no such announcement for its mobile OS, Android.
How video will play out on the web [click to enlarge]
