Microsoft: H.264 in HTML5 about support, not cash
updated 03:30 pm EDT, Mon May 3, 2010
MS says H264 video too ubiquitous to ignore
Microsoft backed up its choice of H.264 for HTML5 video today by casting it as a matter of supporting the audience. The video codec provides "great certainty" as gives developers the most possible support: most mobile hardware supports it and most software tools recognize it, the company said. It further gives Microsoft a clearer idea of what license rights it has and who it might have to pay.
The company's Dean Hachamovitch didn't want to discuss legal problems in depth but supported Apple's Steve Jobs in warning about Ogg Theora's possible patent issues. Being open-source doesn't automatically clear a technology for use, he said.
Hachamovitch was quick to defuse allegations that Microsoft as a member of the MPEG-LA H.264 group was profiting from steering users to the video format. The company receives "less than half" the money in royalties than it puts in to get the rights for device users, he said. Home users can also legally put up their own videos for free until 2016, and Microsoft is allegedly pressing MPEG-LA to extend the free rights past that point.
Other video formats are a possibility, but only once their legal issues have been cleared up. Internet Explorer 9 will still only officially support H.264 over HTML5 but will still support other plugins, including for Flash and Silverlight.
The executive's comments largely echo those of Jobs, who argued for technical reasons to use HTML5 and denied any pseudo-political reasons other than following a truly universal web standard. All iPad, iPhone and iPod hardware recognizes H.264 natively and runs for longer on battery than if they had to turn to the main processor.
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The cynics
No matter what Jobs or MS says, those who believe companies shouldn't make any money will always offer the concept of "someone is making money off of this!" So.... wouldn't you if you were in their place or are you already a failed business person?
Due to the internet, a force we didn't have before, "lies and misdeeds" will quickly come to haunt you. But what about those prognosticators and people who have absolutely NO evidence of anything being amiss, why don't they get tortured?
Lots of these people siding with Adobe in the current conflict do not know that Adobe has a vested interest in Flash as they sell Flash programming tools, and even once in a blue moon update them although it seems to make little difference. I suggest that the Adobe head and those who are giving away Android phones come clean and tell us of what their interests are since they are not hardware manufacturers. Even most of the Flash developers know Flash has problems as do those of us who use the web.