Don’t Be Evil | J@N | 1.12.11

Posted on: January 12, 2011

Posted in: Jupiter@Nite, Video

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Don’t Be Evil | J@N | 1.12.11

Google’s recent announcement that they will be abandoning h.264 video compatibility in Chrome has touched a raw nerve with us. We’re here to tell you what we think this announcement is all about, what it could mean to the immediate future of online media and web browsing, and why Google is not living up to their motto, “Don’t Be Evil.”

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Show Notes:

THE BIG BOMB:

http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/html-video-codec-support-in-chrome.html

Is it to stick to Apple and their support of HTML5?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/216581/google_drops_h264_from_chrome_new_flash_battleground.html

Is it all about cutting the cost of running YouTube?
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/googles-h264-decision-its-all-about-youtube-costs/15529

Five simple questions to Google:
http://daringfireball.net/2011/01/simple_questions

Microsoft likens Google’s H.264 drop to abandoning English
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/01/12/microsoft.jabs.google.dropping.h264.in.chrome/

RELATED NEWS?

WebM (VP8) hardware acceleration coming to mobile chipsets soon
http://www.intomobile.com/2011/01/12/webm-vp8-codec/

Adobe plans to support WebM in Flash… Someday real soon now!
http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplatform/2010/05/adobe_support_for_vp8.html


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  • Anonymous

    I wrote a nice detailed comment on flash, html5, codecs and google but then i loaded a flash video in another window on ‘why html5 is not a flash killer’ and it crashed firefox.
    The Irony is mind-boggling…

    I’m an avid viewer of your shows!! keep it up! You might get a kick to know that I’m watching you all the way from Australia!

  • The Man

    Google has been moving over to the Dark Side for quite some time now. This latest move doesn’t surprise me.

  • Bluebadger

    a) flash is kind of open, SWF is open…. but there isn’t any real alternative to the official Adobe Flash implementation.
    b) IE8 doesn’t have HTML5 stuff, so I’m 99% sure it doesn’t have HTML5 video, not for anything.
    c) Firefox doesn’t have h264 either, nor does Opera.
    d) honestly, once Google/Youtube switches Youtube to WebM as default/Flash or HTML5 for x264(or just flash and screw Apple a bit, but very unlikely), WebM will get more adoption in ie9 and Safari and will then be teh only one available on all.
    e) IE9 will use codecs installed in Windows if they have the codecs for WebM

  • Bluebadger

    I think that Google has to pay $ for each copy of the Chrome browser. I think that that’s why their google branded one has h264 but the open source Chromium doesn’t have it.

    I do think that more people will use Flash in the short term, but then again, I think most people use that already. How much have you actually used HTML5 video or seen it used. H264 will still be used, it’s what is being used to play them that matters. It’s all about the presenter of the container and video…. so H264 is still going to be played in Chrome… just from the Flash player… or if it’s a direct link, it’ll download it and play it in whatever you want/setup on your system. I honestly rather have it that way anyway but I’m a power user.

    I think that once IE9 goes official, it’ll really help it take over and replace IE7, 8 and maybe even some of the old IE6 if IE9 can display WebM with the help of the codecs installed on Windows(the current plan) and if Youtube switches over to WebM.

    I think that Google obviously can think and plan ahead and knows what it is going to do and could have anticipated that there would be a lot of backlash to this announcement but that they have a grand plan for what they want to do with their sites on the Internet and use their position on the web to help make sure that in the long term WebM gets more adoption and H264 gets less. There is a lot of problems long term if people end up using H264 exclusively because of MPEG LA. Yes it’s free to use for a while for most people, but it’s the people producing the video, the hardware and software for H264 that will one day, if not already, have to pay the big $$$…

    Again, if IE9 can play WebM, and everyone but Safari can play WebM, it’ll be even more supported then H264 is right now (before the change in Chrome) for HTML5 video since Firefox (20+% of browsers) can’t and won’t ever be able to play H264 HTML5 video.

  • http://www.gfpprojects.com gk007

    Within the you can list videos in order of priority.

    So in my website, I have h.264 as first priority, then ogg. If either of those don’t work then you can even include a placeholder image…

  • Bleef512

    I think googles motives here are more multi-threaded than you might imagine. As outsiders we look at this matter somewhat monochromatically. Will this hurt Apple in the short term. Quite possibly, and I’m sure that’s a part of the move. Is there an alliance between Google and Flash of course. Does google need flash for ad revenue? In the short term yes, but I believe this functionality could be easily implemented into html 5 videos and certainly will if it’s going to be fully adopted. A big company like google can ensure that eventual reality.

    I believe this change in policy has more to do with the chrome os and google tv. Software/firmware can be updated but when TV and set top makers want chip level integration of hardware acceleration, google would like to prevent them from using h.264. Of course it all boils down to money but money is just a way of keeping score. Google wants to be the architect of the entire eco system. Not because they want to rule the world but because they think their vision of the future is better than anyone elses. This is how Apple feels, I’m sure as well. That’s why they omitted flash from iOS. They even blocked the ability to manually install it which is worse than what google did here.

    This is how you win the game, you make everyone else play by your rules. It is evil, and google’s execution in this case was also evil. It’s far less evil than the shite Apple and Microsoft have pulled or Facebook for that matter. So for now, I’ll still choose the lesser of the evils out there. At least I have an open source alternative with google.

    Side note HTML5 won’t kill flash, just flash as a container format. Flash will still exist as an authoring tool just as photoshop exists as an authoring tool for images. Adobe doesn’t make any money if people use the flash viewer. They make money when people buy flash to develop content. There are other uses for flash besides video containers.

    If adobe was smart they would open source their entire software offering and provide a polished version of all their stuff for retail. The people that would use the open source are just going to pirate their software anyway so why make them pay when they can help you develop a more robust solution for the people that do pay.

    The problem with Adobe is their model is so 1987. This is why the Microsoft Tablets won’t be adopted as much as iOS and Android 3.0 tabs. If I want the clunky windows UI on a tablet I’ll just VNC into one of my XP virtuals. Now if they adapt the Windows 7 phone UI for tablets it might have a chance. Ultimately I don’t think what google did here is out of sync with what the market wants. The disconnect is with content creators and it’s a temporary one. In google I trust.

  • Floppy123
  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YILZEI3NCSF73TPTX4ILII5SRQ Anonymous

    Hey, Chris I’m trying watch your show from my boxee box but the video runs at 4 time the original speed, sound runs at normal speed though. The same thing happens also with lotso, stoked(hd) and LAS (video).

  • http://ormaaj.myopenid.com/ ormaaj

    You can’t just shrug your shoulders at the fact that Firefox and other browsers without massive commercial backing will never ever be able to ship with h.264 support. Flash or some other plugin is exactly where a non-free extension like this belongs. If that’s a minor inconvenience for you… tough. We simply aren’t going to standardize the web around something so stupid. IE9 will support webm, so this whole argument is basically moot. That’s fine if it takes a few years. The alternative is unacceptable.

    Ads are perfectly possible. You should be able to manipulate video elements with Javascript, overlay videos or arbitrary other elements, as well as elements from the SVG namespace. No idea why they aren’t doing that.

  • Tt

    Repeat after me: Firefox will never support H.264.

    And again: Firefox will never support H.264.

    So how does this move even matter?

  • hvakrg

    Google has to pay for the H.264 support, but the money is pocket change for them. The max amount they would have to pay is something like $5.6 million a year, and considdering that they’ve spent over $100 million on WebM money isn’t an argument for Google.

    And if it’s the lack of openness that’s the problem why do they include things like MP3 and AAC in chrome?

  • http://nejc.info/ nEJC

    I’ve listened to Chris talk and mope about low OGG Theora viewership twice now …
    Let me tell You why that is: see that drop-down box on the right, right above the giant Apple logo? Look inside. Is there even one OGG Theora subscription option? No? Not even for Linux Action Show, the show about freeeeeeeeeeeeeedom! No?
    Well make one goddamnit – I bet this would increase consumption. Geeze …