Why We Need Ogg Theora, Not H.264 for HTML 5

One of the latest subjects of tech chatter lately has been about  HTML 5 video killing flash and becoming the next web standard. With YouTube, Vimeo, and some other web streaming sites beginning their transition to HTML 5 this seems like a real possibility and is certainly welcomed by everyone. However, it seems that the video format that the HTML 5 video tag will indicate is still up in the air. The two formats fighting for the spot are H.264 and Ogg Theora.

H.264 is technically a proprietary format. Which is the deal breaker for many, including me. While its not nearly as proprietary as flash, H.264 is a property of the MPEG standards organization which puts it somewhere between proprietary and public and it’s use is not free but is currently being used royalty free by HTML 5 until 2016. It’s a contender though because its well maintained and extremely common, and most people already have the ability to view H.264 encoded videos without installing codecs.

The Open Source contender is the Ogg format, specifically the use of Ogg Theora video and Vorbis sound. The Ogg format is completely open source. It offers no less video quality than H.264 or any other popular format. Infact it looks a hell of a lot better than youtube does:

We need to use Ogg as the web standard, if we do we will end up being a lot better off in the future, we never have to worry about having to change everything just because someone decides we have to pay to use H.264, which may very well happen in 2016. With Theora, we get a beautiful quality compression standard as well as further spread of knowledge about Open Source as well as peace of mind. Also, H.264 has a large proprietary-like license while Theora has only a few lines and ends with: no charge and without restrictions of any kind. More about the licensing. Want to try Ogg in your browser? If you’re using Safari or Chrome you can use HTML 5 video right now. Check it out: Big Buck Bunny 480p OGG (You probably want this one for lagless playback) Big Buck Bunny 720p OGG Big Buck Bunny 1080p OGG What do you think about the formatting for the future of the web? Should we stick with H.264 or start the use of the Ogg format? Comments are always read and appreciated!