WebM

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WebM
logo
File extension : .webm
MIME type : audio / webm, video / webm
(unofficial)
Developed by: Google Inc.
Type: Container format
Container for: VP8 , VP9 , AV1 (video)
Vorbis , Opus (audio)
Website : www.webmproject.org


WebM is a container format for audio and video data, used for the video codecs VP8 and VP9 introduced by Google , which represent alternatives to the well-known H.264 codec . It was developed for websites in the HTML5 standard, where it is used as an alternative to the MP4 format. WebM was introduced by Google Inc. in May 2010 and is supported by the Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software , among others . For Internet Explorer 9 or higher, Google provides a browser extension for download.

In April 2011, Google also introduced WebM on YouTube , where it has since been integrated into the site as an alternative playback option via the video tag in HTML5 , without browser plugins such as the Flash player that was previously required . Another example implementation - which in the case of the VP8 video format also represents the description of the standard - was published as free software under the terms of a BSD license . A sister project of WebM is the graphic format WebP , which is based on the intra-frame coding of VP8 .

Technical details

The WebM standard consists of a subset of the Matroska container format, the video codecs VP8 and VP9 and the audio codecs Vorbis and the newer Opus .

By default, FFmpeg has been using VP9 with Opus instead of VP8 with Vorbis for output in WebM files since August 2015.

History and support

The project was announced at the Google I / O 2010 developer conference and initially competed with the H.264 codec. After purchasing On2, Google released a free codec for HTML5 with VP8 . Mozilla Firefox , Opera and Chromium released (beta) browser versions with WebM support on the day of the announcement, as did Google itself. On April 17, 2012, the German Tagesschau announced that it would replace Ogg Theora with WebM in its online offerings . Videos were no longer available as Ogg Theora since the end of March.

Since November 2012, WebM has been supported by Wikimedia on all wiki platforms .

Example of a WebM encoded video on Wikimedia Commons

Web links

Commons : WebM encoded videos  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Not an IANA standard. Retrieved August 1, 2016 .
  2. HTML5 Video - Media Types (English) - on w3schools.com
  3. HTML5 AAC Audio Playback Tests - Multichannel of the Fraunhofer Institute
  4. Brief description of WebM. WebM Project, accessed August 10, 2011 .
  5. Google presents the open source video format WebM on zdnet.de.
  6. Media formats supported by the HTML5 audio and video elements - MDN Mozilla Developer Network (English).
  7. Supported Web Browsers - on webmproject.org
  8. WebM Video for Microsoft Internet Explorer 9+ - at tools.google.com (English).
  9. Internet Explorer 11: Retrofit support for WebM codec - at tecchannel.de.
  10. YouTube converts all videos into WebM format - from April 20, 2011 on winfuture.de.
  11. HTML5 video player from YouTube on youtube.com.
  12. WebM Open Movie Plug-In for Premiere - WebM plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro (English).
  13. FFmpeg : Changelog: Mention the change of the default webm codecs.
  14. Golem: VP8 is Open Source , May 19, 2010.
  15. Linux Magazine: Google Makes Video Codec for the Web Open Source , May 19, 2010.
  16. Mozilla surrenders to the H.264 web video format. ZDNet, March 15, 2012, accessed on March 17, 2012 .
  17. Mozilla execs capitulate in H.264 web video was. CNET, March 14, 2012, accessed March 17, 2012 .
  18. ^ The Mozilla Blog: Open Web, Open Video and WebM , May 19, 2010.
  19. Opera supports the WebM video format - Opera's announcement and builds with WebM support, May 19, 2010.
  20. The Chromium Blog: WebM and VP8 land in Chromium , May 19, 2010.
  21. heise.de: Tagesschau replaces Ogg Theora with WebM , April 17, 2012.