Motorola has won an injunction in Germany on key Microsoft products involved in a patent dispute. But in a confusing and complex judgment, the chances of Motorola actually trying to get Microsoft’s key products removed from shelves are slim. Read more »
Mobile data traffic is set to explode, driven by more smartphones and tablets and the incredible growth of video traversing mobile networks. But a new video format is on its way, which could deliver the same high-quality video in half as many bits. Read more »
H.264 license holder MPEG LA says it’s ready to step up the fight against Google’s open-source WebM format. After threatening to form a patent pool to use against WebM, the group now says it has identified 12 companies with patents essential to the VP8 standard. Read more »
H.264 remains the dominant force in online video, as the video codec now accounts for more than two-thirds of online video, according to a blog post by MeFeedia. Meanwhile, Google’s WebM format has yet to gain any significant traction after being released a year ago. Read more »
In 2007, online video was a straightforward affair: You put a video online; you made it short; and you hoped for the best. But today, due to a growing number of video codecs and connected devices, publishers need to produce an ever-increasing number of video files. Read more »
Any new video uploaded to YouTube will be automatically encoded in WebM, the open-source video format that’s backed by Google, Mozilla and others. YouTube has also been busy transcoding its back catalog and has now around 30 percent of all videos available in WebM. Read more »
Firefox 4 is clocking huge download numbers ever since it was released yesterday, and that’s good news for Google’s open video format WebM: The new version of Firefox supports WebM HTML5 video playback, bringing the total market share of browsers with WebM support to 50 percent. Read more »
The Department of Justice and the California State Attorney are looking into MPEG LA’s formation of a patent pool for Google’s WebM video format. Regulators are trying to figure out whether the patent pool is meant to stifle competition for the established video format H.264. Read more »
Skype announced on its blog today that it now supports the H.264 video format on iOS devices, a change that will allow users to chat across multiple platforms, since H.264 is now the de facto standard for video playback on connected TVs and other devices. Read more »
Dropping H.264 may be beneficial for Google in several ways, but the move will have little effect on the broader online video market. Ubiquitous Flash usage and lack of hardware support means WebM has a long way to go before it’s a viable alternative to H.264. Read more »
Microsoft reiterated its support behind H.264-encoded video this morning, announcing that it is releasing plugins to deliver video in that format to Firefox and Chrome browsers. But while they might quell some short-term concerns about delivering HTML5 video, plug-ins won’t solve the larger problems facing the industry. Read more »
Google’s backing of its own open source video codec at the expense of H.264 has many open advocates cheering. But with H.264 widely supported already, the result will actually be more use of the proprietary Flash player for delivery of Web video, not less. Read more »
Google is making a big push behind its open source video codec, announcing today on the Chromium blog that its web browser will soon do away with support for H.264. With existing support from Firefox and Opera, that could tip the scales in favor of WebM. Read more »
Forget the age-old problem of figuring out what to watch on TV. The new question will be: where do you want to watch it? By 2014, U.S. broadband households will have to choose from between 5 and 10 screens for digital entertainment, says research firm, In-Stat. Read more »
MPEG LA is announcing today that it will continue to offer a royalty-free license for the H.264 video codec for video sites that offer free video streams to consumers “during the entire life of this (l)icense.” In other words: H.264 streaming will be free forever. Read more »
Several significant events set the tone for the digital media ecosystem during in the second quarter. First among these was the release of the iPad, the impact of which went far beyond device uptake; among other things it does not support Adobe Flash, which has impacted the entire chain of web-based video production from content sites re-encoding video to new tools being developed for HTML5-based advertising.
Another principal event in the quarter was the announcement of Google TV, a software platform built on Android 2.1, Google Chrome and Flash 10.1 that will be incorporated into a variety of companion devices including TV sets, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. The platform offers significant advancements in merging TV and the web experience (although TiVo says it has done just that for years). Sony and Logitech have both announced plans to launch Google TV products in fall 2010.
Also in the second quarter, both YouTube and Hulu refreshed their sites, reflecting the market’s growing maturity. But while YouTube spent the quarter on the defensive in its ongoing legal battle with Viacom over copyright infringement, Hulu was on the offensive, introducing new services and preparing a paid subscription service launch. A paid service would bring new revenue streams to the video site, and would put Hulu in more direction competion with Netflix, which is increasingly shifting toward its streaming video service, away from its former mainstay of DVDs by mail. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Want to play videos encoded with WebM, the new video format that Google open sourced at its developers conference last week? Well, look no further: The new version of VLC supports WebM playback. Another feature included in the new release is hardware decoding for H.264 videos. Read more »
Google’s new open source video format WebM will become more popular than H.264 in one to two years, Brightcove’s President and COO David Mendels predicts. One of the first major websites to try out WebM for its web videos could be the New York Times. Read more »
Google made waves earlier this week by releasing its VP8 codec under an open source, royalty free license, providing an open, high quality alternative to H.264 and Ogg Theora. But if MPEG LA gets its way, the codec might not remain free for long. Read more »
Up until now, those who wanted to watch HTML5 video in the Firefox browser were unable to access content that was encoded the H.264 format. But that could soon change, as a new project seeks to remedy this by marrying H.264 video to Mozilla’s Firefox browser. Read more »
Microsoft said it would support Google’s newly released, open source VP8 video codec in the next version of its web browser, Internet Explorer 9, contradicting some earlier statements that claimed it would only allow HTML5 video playback via H.264. Read more »
Jonathan Gay is fed up with Steve Jobs calling Flash a closed platform while at the same time preventing cross-platform development for the iPad and iPhone. He also thinks Apple’s move to support H.264 web video via HTML5 is a danger to the open web. Read more »
RCN to Expand TiVo ‘Premiere’ Rollout; RCN is beginning to market TiVo’s new Premiere box as its primary DVR in and around Washington, D.C., and it plans to expand the rollout to New York and other cities soon. (Light Reading Cable) Half of Flat Panel TVs […] Read more »
Microsoft’s IE blog has published a follow-up to Friday’s post about Internet Explorer exclusively supporting H.264 for HTML5 video, answering many questions raised by commenters and debunking some misconceptions. Here’s the gist: Microsoft will continue to support Flash, as well as Silverlight, for video playback. The […] Read more »
YouTube Developing Self-serve Rental Model; YouTube engineers are working on a self-service method that will give moviemakers the ability to upload and provide their streaming content for rent. (MediaPost) Hollywood Video Closes Doors; the movie-rental chain, which filed for bankruptcy in February for the second time […] Read more »
On Microsoft’s IE blog this morning, Dean Hachamovitch, general manager for Internet Explorer, reiterated his support for HTML5 and H.264 as the codec of choice for web video shown through the next generation of its web browser, IE9. On first blush, Microsoft’s backing H.264 in the […] Read more »
The developers of the open source h.264 codec x264 have just released an update that makes it possible to burn Blu-ray discs on regular DVD-9 or even DVD-5 DVD-Rs. x264 uses advanced compression to fit Blu-ray movies on much cheaper DVD-Rs “with a reasonable level of […] Read more »
With the news that Google plans to open source On2′s VP8 codec next month, there’s been a lot of talk about whether or not it can emerge as the “one codec to rule them all,” as my colleague Stacey Higginbotham tweeted just a few days ago. […] Read more »
We already know ABC and CBS are working to make their TV shows available on the iPad, so what about the other two big broadcasters — Fox and NBC? Well, Fox has yet to announce (or leak) its support for the device, and NBC has been […] Read more »
The upcoming iPad may not have Flash, but that’s not stopping Apple from pitching it as the ideal device for personal video viewing. In its guided tour of the iPad, Apple touts the benefits of watching iTunes and YouTube video from the device, which will go […] Read more »
H.264, Ogg Theora, MP4, Xvid, MKV, FLV: The world of online video can be pretty confusing. Not only are there tons of different formats and acronyms, but various devices and services actually have vastly different requirements. A video you downloaded via BitTorrent most likely won’t play […] Read more »
When Apple first introduced the iPad to the world, there was more than a bit of consternation around the fact that the new device, which finally ships next week, wouldn’t support Adobe Flash. While limiting access to a whole range of Flash-based games and web sites […] Read more »
Steve Jobs has been bad-mouthing Adobe’s Flash once again, according to a recent Business Insider report. The Apple head honcho recently visited the Wall Street Journal to demonstrate the iPad. During his stay he allegedly criticized Adobe’s Flash technology, with the intent to move the popular […] Read more »
GIPS, a San Francisco-based company that licenses intellectual property including codecs for audio and video, says it’s come up with a technology that would allow third-party developers to embed video chat in their iPhone-related applications. The new technology is called VideoEngine (VEI) Mobile. Read more »
Good news for HTML5 proponents: MPEG LA has announced that it will extend its royalty-free license of the H.264 video streaming format for an additional five years. In doing so, the license holder has agreed not to charge for use of the near-ubiquitous H.264 encoding format […] Read more »
QuickTime has been around since well before OS X, dating back to 1991, but this old dog gets new life in the next version of the Mac OS. QuickTime X, as the new release has been named, follows the theme of Snow Leopard by incorporating both […] Read more »
DivX, a video codec and software company based in San Diego, Calif., announced yesterday that it was acquiring Aachen, Germany-based MainConcept for $22 million with another $6 million in earn outs. For DivX CEO Kevin Hell the acquisition is a bet on the future of video: […] Read more »
