Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ogg Vorbis / Theora Language Removed From HTML5 Spec

Posted by Zonk on from the nice-while-it-lasted dept.

Rudd-O writes "It's official. Ogg technology has been removed from the HTML5 spec, after Ian caved in the face of pressure from Apple and Nokia. Unless massive pressure is exerted on the HTML5 spec editing process, the Web authoring world will continue to endure our modern proprietary Tower of Babel. Note that HTML5 in no way required Ogg (as denoted by the word 'should' instead of 'must' in the earlier draft). Adding this to the fact that there are widely available patent-free implementations of Ogg technology, there is really no excuse for Apple and Nokia to say that they couldn't in good faith implement HTML5 as previously formulated."

3 of 395 comments (clear)

  1. ...now that I read the changes... by drakaan · · Score: 5, Informative

    I see that what I just suggested is exactly the change they made. I'm fine with that...off to tag the front-page article with "badsummary"

    --
    "Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
  2. The actual mail on the HTML-wg mailing list... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just to point out what it currently happening, here is the mail from Ian Hickson from this morning:

    "I've temporarily removed the requirements on video codecs from the HTML5
    spec, since the current text isn't helping us come to a useful
    interoperable conclusion. When a codec is found that is mutually
    acceptable to all major parties I will update the spec to require that
    instead and then reply to all the pending feedback on video codecs.

        http://www.whatwg.org/issues/#graphics-video-codec
    "

    The title of the news is a bit misleading :) In other words "temporarily removed until a consensus has been found".

  3. FUD FUD FUD by a+known+emus · · Score: 5, Informative
    This is a point by point reply to your FUD.
    • Theora is almost an order of magnitude better performing that H.261 and this is a critical difference for web video.
    • No one actually knows what the patent status of any software is! ... In fact, several paid up licensees of mpeg codecs have been sued for patent infringement over these codecs *and lost*, so it's hard to argue that those codecs are better off.
    • It's true that Theora isn't very widely adopted, but it has been shipped by Linux distributions for years, so there has been plenty of opportunities for people to sue over patents. Theora is used by Wikipedia, one of the most viewed websites in the world. Of course, Vorbis is orders of magnitude better on this point.
    • What are you Nokia? An expensive and heavily patented codec like H.264 is not "open" in any meaningful sense. It's true that Ogg/Theora+Vorbis is not yet amazingly popular, but that is part of the point of standards. There is a chicken and egg, and first-mover takes all problem for file formats and standards help fix that problem.
    • Why does HTML have an image tag? What would the world be like if images on the web required various incompatible proprietary plugins? Why should video and audio be any different from still media?