[opendtv] News: Apple CEO Jobs Lacks Faith in VP8, Says Report
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 23 May 2010 08:26:46 -0400
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Apple-CEO-Jobs-Lacks-Faith-in-VP8-Says-Report/?kc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RSS%2Ftech+%28eWEEK+Technology+News%29
Apple CEO Jobs Lacks Faith in VP8, Says Report
By: Nicholas Kolakowski
2010-05-22
Apple CEO Steve Jobs apparently lacks faith in Google's newly
announced VP8 WebM video codec, reportedly citing a developer blog
post that condemns the codec as slow, buggy and at risk for patent
violations. Google is backing the VP8 WebM codec for HTML5 video,
using the high-profile platform of the Google I/O developer
conference to tout the software's open-source bona fides.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs apparently hinted in an e-mail message that he
believes Google's VP8 WebM video codec is slow, buggy and at risk for
patent violations. That e-mail was a response to one sent by a
software engineer, asking, "What did you make of the recent VP8
announcement?"
During the Google I/O developer conference, Google said it will push
the now apparently open-source VP8 WebM codec for HTML5 video.
Originally developed by On2 Technologies, acquired by Google in
February, VP8 is touted by some as an efficient way to compress Web
video.
According to a May 20 article in The Register, which posted screen
captures of the exchange, Jobs-or someone using his Apple e-mail
account-responded to the engineer's question with a link to a blog,
Diary of an x264 Developer, which suggests the VP8 codec has issues.
Resource Library:
"Overall, VP8 appears to be significantly weaker than H.264
compression-wise," that blog's author, Jason Garrett-Glaser, a
primary x264 developer and a third-year student at Harvey Mudd
College, said in a May 19 post. "The primary weaknesses mentioned
above are the lack of proper adaptive quantization, lack of B-frames,
lack of an 8x8 transform and a nonadaptive loop filter."
The post also pointed out a potential patent issue. "VP8 is simply
way too similar to H.264: A pithy, if slightly inaccurate,
description of VP8 would be 'H.264 Baseline Profile with a better
entropy encoder,'" Garrett-Glaser wrote. "Though I am not a lawyer, I
simply cannot believe that they will be able to get away with this,
especially in today's overly litigious day and age."
During a May 18 keynote address during the Google I/O developer
conference, Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at
Google, said, "HTML5 is everywhere. The question is: How do we make
use of that?"
Google's apparent answer is to back the VP8 codec. Adobe and
Microsoft have also indicated that they will support the format; in
the latter's case, the user will need to install a VP8 codec on
Windows in order for Internet Explorer 9 to support playback of VP8
video. Additionally, Google, Opera Software, Adobe, Brightcove and
other companies have established the WebM Project, which touts itself
as "dedicated to developing a high-quality, open video format for the
Web that is freely available to everyone."
Pichai told the audience that Google would open-source VP8 under "a
completely open-source license."
Further developments will show whether Google's vision of an
open-source VP8 WebM codec will mesh well with reality. Whether or
not the situation descends into a patent-infringement battle, though,
one thing is apparent: The codec likely won't have a supporter in
Steve Jobs.
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