Decoding the HTML 5 video codec debate
Found on Ars Technica on Monday, 06 July 2009
Although HTML 5 is still in the draft stage, several of its features have already been widely adopted by browsers like Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. Among the most compelling is the "video" element, which has the potential to free Web video from its plugin prison and make video content a native first-class citizen on the Web-if codec disagreements don't stand in the way.
The HTML 5 working group is split between supporters of Ogg Theora and H.264.
Apple and Google favor H.264 while Mozilla and Opera favor Ogg Theora.
What's with that pointless codec discussion anyway? HTML5 will arrive in years, if not a decade. Deciding on a codec is the worst thing one can do, because it assumes that codecs will not get better over the years. There has been no forced format for the img tag in the beginning, otherwise we'd be limited with gif instead of switching to the advanced png. All that aside, the video and audio tags sound like prime candidates for being blocked because I don't want to websites to bomb me with random noise and video; something advertisers will probably try a lot.