theora

Google, trying step by step to rebuild everything in the computing industry from Internet protocols to cloud-computing services, began a new project called WebM on Wednesday that seeks to begin a new chapter in Web video.

Even after Google's high-profile WebM announcement at its Google I/O conference, there's plenty of confusion, and some questions concerning the technology can't be answered yet. Here, however, is our attempt to demystify WebM and its effects.

WebM is a codec--but what's a codec? A codec is technology to encode and decode video or audio data. They're used … Read more

Google unveiled an open-source, royalty-free video format called WebM on Wednesday, lining up commitments from Mozilla and Opera to support the encoding technology in their browsers and pledging to support it on its YouTube site.

"The WebM project is dedicated to developing a high-quality, open video format for the Web that is freely available to everyone," the WebM Web page states. As expected, Google made the move in conjunction with its Google I/O conference Wednesday.

It's not yet clear how much success Google will have spreading WebM, but the company has big Web ambitions, a powerful … Read more

It's widely expected that Google will use this week's I/O conference to announce how it hopes to rewrite the rules of Web video by releasing its newly acquired video technology as open-source software.

Now, one analyst has offered a name for the plan: the WebM Project.

Dan Rayburn, a Frost & Sullivan analyst and executive vice president of StreamingMedia.com, said in a blog post Tuesday that he was tipped off about the project name and Web address.

The WebM Project name has an "under construction" Web site that was registered April 28 by Google. … Read more

If authentic, a new e-mail from Steve Jobs indicates that Apple and Microsoft--of all bedfellows--could be preparing to challenge the validity of open-source video codecs.

Jobs' e-mail to Hugo Roy of the Free Software Foundation Europe, coupled with a similarly worded announcement from Microsoft on Friday, is a shot across the bow of backers of the open-source Ogg Theora video codec, used by Mozilla to bring HTML5 video technology to Firefox. Both Apple and Microsoft plan to use the h.264 codec in their HTML5 strategy, which is governed by a licensing body called MPEG LA. Apple and Microsoft, along with a host of tech companies, … Read more

With the release of the Opera 10.5 beta, a fourth browser is available that can play video built directly into Web pages with no plug-ins required.

The HTML5 Web pages standard under development lets programmers build video into Web pages so browsers don't need a plug-in such as Adobe Systems' Flash to play it--the way they've been accustomed to doing with JPEG images for years. However, Opera's arrival isn't likely to bridge a video technology divide that's a serious hurdle for adoption of HTML5 video.

Opera 10.5, like Mozilla's Firefox, can play … Read more

In a decision that deprives open-source foes of some rhetorical fodder, the group that licenses patents for the widely used H.264 video-encoding technology chose to renew a streaming-media freebie through 2015.

MPEG LA licenses more than 1,000 H.264-related patents on behalf of 26 companies that hold the patents. The group's existing policy, which runs through the end of 2010, has been not to charge royalties to Internet sites that streamed video using the technology--as long as the video was free for viewers.

Many have been waiting to hear what MPEG LA would announce for the licensing … Read more

A disagreement between Google and Mozilla is making a once-obscure debate into a real issue for those who watch Web video or host it on their own sites.

Last week, Google's YouTube announced early support for HTML5 video, which can be built directly into Web pages and viewed with browsers without relying on a plug-in such as Adobe Systems' Flash, Microsoft's Silverlight, or Apple's QuickTime. Another Web video site, Vimeo, followed suit.

Native video on a Web page sounds nice, and many Web companies support the effort broadly. But there's one big devil in its detail: … Read more

Wikipedia users will be getting new tools for uploading, editing, and viewing video very soon. According to a Beet.TV interview with Erik Moller, who is the deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation, we'll see all of these things shortly. However, what's more interesting is the Web encyclopedia's choice of video formats and how it fits into a fracas in the browser world.

Wikipedia has been working on video support for years, and is putting considerable effort into making it easier for users to upload video--specifically, to bridge a video format divide. Moller says that while Wikipedia … Read more

Hey, here's a thought: a free, open-source video codec that could be universally portable and playable. I'd vote for that, wouldn't you? In other news of the day, Dash stops making hardware to focus on software, Apple brings in an IBM guy to run the iPod division (other than Steve Jobs), and BlackBerry sneaks the Bold into stores today. Yeah, today. There's got to be something wrong with that thing.

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Apple’s iPod chief to step down http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10082065-37.html

Dash Navigation pulls the plug … Read more