Firefox is now supporting H.264 for web-based video chat, thanks to a binary component provided by Cisco — but H.264 web video streams still can’t be played natively in the browser.
Users of the ad-supported movie streaming site SnagFilms can now cast videos to their TVs, thanks to their use of the popular JW Player video player.
Apple is the latest browser maker to ditch plugins for Netflix playback. The move is controversial with opponents of DRM.
The little icon that lets you cast videos to the TV screen could soon pop up on many more websites: JW Player is adding Chromecast support to its video player.
The tech industry’s movers and shakers have been saying for months now that the HTML5 mark-up language is very important. New research data released Friday indicates that HTML5 is not just going to be big, it’s going to be huge — and it’s coming fast.
H.264 remains the dominant force in online video, as the video codec now accounts for more than two-thirds of online video, according to a blog post by MeFeedia. Meanwhile, Google’s WebM format has yet to gain any significant traction after being released a year ago.
New benchmark tests confirm what we have long suspected: Flash video on mobile devices just doesn’t look as good as HTML5 video, especially when it comes to HD clips. Support for hardware acceleration could alleviate most of these issues, but not for every user.
Microsoft reiterated its support behind H.264-encoded video this morning, announcing that it is releasing plugins to deliver video in that format to Firefox and Chrome browsers. But while they might quell some short-term concerns about delivering HTML5 video, plug-ins won’t solve the larger problems facing the industry.
Netflix is all for HTML5 video, but it doesn’t want to simply reinvent the wheel and push forward with its own flavor of browser-based video delivery technologies. The company said today that it’s instead getting involved in standards bodies to resolve remaining obstacles across all platforms.
