After a fractious false start last year, Web standards makers will reconvene in Orlando, Florida, this March to try to settle a debate about the best video technology for browser-based chatting.
The Web-based chat standard, which holds the potential to bring Skype-like audio and video communication services to the Web, is called WebRTC. The debate about it centers on how best to compress video: the widely used industry-standard H.264 codec, or Google's royalty-free, open-source VP8 codec?
The discussion took some surprising twists and turns late last year -- including Google's last-minute action to postpone discussion because of unspecified intellectual property issues and a vote by H.264 patent holders about whether to offer that codec for free.
If this debate sounds familiar, it's because Web standards setters already hashed it in recent years when dealing with Web video. There, fans of H.264's quality and widespread support pitted against those who gnash their teeth at patent-encumbered technology erecting toll booths on an an Internet otherwise built from free-to-implement standards.
HTML5 introduced built-in video, in principle letting Web developers use it as easily as they do images and no longer requiring them to rely on a plug-in like Adobe Systems' Flash Player.
Related stories
- ... [Read more]
No comments:
Post a Comment