Currently Firefox users have noticed that they can’t see HTML5 video (video that is free of codecs/is not flash or silverlight) on YouTube OR Vimeo.
The reason is simple…YouTube/Vimeo have chosen H.264 as the HTML5 codec which is a major no-no for Firefox.
Firefox believes in open standards (reason why it was made!), and naturally open codecs.
Firefox supports .ogv (Ogg video) which is open source and free for all.
Which means people from Africa or the U.S. can watch the same video without problems.
The problem with H.264 is that it needs licensing.
Since Firefox is open source, and is made from a non-profit company Mozilla…they can’t pay the fees.
The fee would total over $5 million if they added H.264 for country’s that support the patent.
If your in a country that doesn’t support the codec then to bad, no video for you.
Vimeo/YouTube could easily add .ogv support with H.264 in there HTML5 video beta.
That would solve the problem.
HTML 5 video is currently supported in Opera, FireFox, Safari, and Chrome (including mobile).
IE support can be done with chrome frame which basically turns it into chrome.
Currently Vimeo/YouTube support Chrome/Safari because they have paid for the licensing costs (Google/Apple).
So please tell Vimeo/YouTube/etc to support HTML5 with .OGV.
The reason H.264 was chosen (or so I have heard) is that .OGV has been having its own patent war, and is “not as good as H.264″.
I find that very untrue, so I (and everyone who is a Firefox/Linux user) really hope that while they are in a beta stage that they change their mind about this.
Note: This is not DRM rather why should a company pay another company to let its users play a video?
So why should you even care about HTML5?
Here is a list:
- Not Flash So It’s Less Of A Security Risk
- No plug-ins, or software to install for the video to play
- Instant streaming (no waiting for it to load)
- Latest HTML version
- Supports Open Standards (potentially)
