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YouTube, HTML5, and Comparing H.264 With Theora
David Gerard writes "Google Chrome includes Ogg support for the <video> element. It also includes support for the hideously encumbered H.264 format. Nice as an extra, but ... they're also testing HTML5 YouTube only for H.264 — meaning the largest video provider on the Net will make H.264 the primary codec and relegate the equally good open format Ogg/Theora firmly to the sidelines. Mike Shaver from Mozilla has fairly unambiguously asked Chris DiBona from Google what the heck Google thinks it's doing."
DiBona responded with concerns that switching to Theora while maintaining quality would take up an incredible amount of bandwidth for a site like YouTube, though he made clear his support for the continued improvement of the project. Greg Maxwell jumped into the debate by comparing the quality of Ogg/Theora+Vorbis with the current YouTube implementations using H.263+MP3 and H.264+AAC. At the lower bitrate, Theora seems to have the clear edge, while the higher bitrate may slightly favor H.264. He concludes that YouTube's adoption of "an open unencumbered format in addition to or instead of their current offerings would not cause problems on the basis of quality or bitrate."
I expect IE will have support for flash video (via a plugin from adobe) and silverlight. If they are feeling really generous, they will add support for wmv.
Why would they do that when they could just make it an "urgent system security update" in the first place?
Windows Update presents a concise and intelligible explanation of the updates ready to be downloaded or ready to be installed - with a link to more detailed information.
There is a clear separation of priority updates from the rest.
You are not presented with a half dozen or so check boxes to install Chrome, Safari, OpenOffice, etc., etc., etc.
Only in the US, and even there I don't believe you are correct. Most people have crappy mp3 players. I know it's difficult to believe however if you left your basement.. narh, nevermind.