May 17, 2013 at 11:10Google calls for an early transition to the VP9 codec
The computer industry did not have time to master the VP8 codec, and Google is already calling for the transition to a much more advanced VP9. A channel with VP9-compressed videos has been launched on YouTube . To watch this video, users of Chrome 28 Dev need to find and uncheck the corresponding box in their browser settings.
The final version of the VP9 specifications is planned to be approved on June 19, and on June 24 support for this codec will be enabled by default for users of Chrome 29 Dev.
Unlike the proprietary H.264 codec dominating the market, the VP9 standard is open and does not require licensing fees for its use. According to Google, the financial conditions of H.264 and H.265 are unacceptable for startups, developers, schools and other users who can launch their video project: “We want to guarantee that they will not pay $ 5-6 million each year in favor of regulators, ” said Matt Frost, senior project manager for the Chrome Web Media group, in a speech at the Google I / O Conference.
Yesterday at the Google I / O conference, Google engineers also showed a demo, which is 50% smaller than H.264, and from the screen it seems to have the same quality. Google will save a lot of money by halving YouTube traffic, even if only for Chrome users.
At the same time, the new proprietary H.265 codec is approaching, which is also twice as effective as H.264 : it allows you to broadcast 4K video on a band of 20-30 Mbit / s.
The video compression level is doubled every 6-8 years due to new codecs, so there is nothing strange here.
In January, the draft of the H.265 standard was approved by ITU , and in 12-18 months the first devices with hardware support are expected to appear.
Google developers say that H.265 outperforms VP9 in compression ratio by an average of 1%, but in some videos VP9 performs better. Video quality tests are a very subjective thing, by definition, it’s not a matter of effectiveness. The main advantage of VP9 is precisely in license cleanliness and virtually guaranteed absence of license fees. When picking up a commercial service with video broadcasting, you can be almost completely sure that you will not have to pay royalties to patent holders.
The final version of the VP9 specifications is planned to be approved on June 19, and on June 24 support for this codec will be enabled by default for users of Chrome 29 Dev.
Unlike the proprietary H.264 codec dominating the market, the VP9 standard is open and does not require licensing fees for its use. According to Google, the financial conditions of H.264 and H.265 are unacceptable for startups, developers, schools and other users who can launch their video project: “We want to guarantee that they will not pay $ 5-6 million each year in favor of regulators, ” said Matt Frost, senior project manager for the Chrome Web Media group, in a speech at the Google I / O Conference.
Yesterday at the Google I / O conference, Google engineers also showed a demo, which is 50% smaller than H.264, and from the screen it seems to have the same quality. Google will save a lot of money by halving YouTube traffic, even if only for Chrome users.
At the same time, the new proprietary H.265 codec is approaching, which is also twice as effective as H.264 : it allows you to broadcast 4K video on a band of 20-30 Mbit / s.
The video compression level is doubled every 6-8 years due to new codecs, so there is nothing strange here.
In January, the draft of the H.265 standard was approved by ITU , and in 12-18 months the first devices with hardware support are expected to appear.
Google developers say that H.265 outperforms VP9 in compression ratio by an average of 1%, but in some videos VP9 performs better. Video quality tests are a very subjective thing, by definition, it’s not a matter of effectiveness. The main advantage of VP9 is precisely in license cleanliness and virtually guaranteed absence of license fees. When picking up a commercial service with video broadcasting, you can be almost completely sure that you will not have to pay royalties to patent holders.