The HTML5 draft specification adds video and audio elements for embedding video and audio in HTML documents. The specification had formerly recommended support for playback of Theora video and Vorbis audio encapsulated in Ogg containers to provide for easier distribution of audio and video over the internet by using open standards, but the recommendation was soon after dropped.
Because some visitors and publishers choose not to take part in the use of proprietary software, web content has been made available through open standards in order to reach these users. As multimedia is already mainstream on the web through proprietary data formats (such as Windows Media Video and MP4) and browser plugins (such as Adobe Flash Player), developers had hoped Theora and Vorbis would become part of the HTML5 specification.[1]
Users affiliated with the free software movement claimed the following advantages:
video and audio elements would require less effort than mastering the object element or learning ActionScript as required by Adobe Flash.CTO at Opera Software, Håkon Wium Lie explained in a Google tech talk entitled "The
After the presentation, Lie was asked whether Opera will support other formats than Ogg:
Opera Software and Mozilla have been advocates for including the Ogg formats into the HTML standard.[3] Support has been available in experimental builds of Opera 9.5 since 2007,[4] and Ogg Theora is fully supported since Opera 10.50.[5] Gecko 1.9.1 (browsers based on this engine include Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and SeaMonkey 2.0), released on June 30, 2009, was the first non-experimental layout engine to support Ogg formats. Google Chrome included support in their 3.0 release (September 2009),[6] along with support for H.264. However, they did not support MPEG-1 (the parts patents on which are thought to have expired), citing concerns over performance.[7]
Microsoft began work in October 2017 on implementing support for Ogg, Vorbis, and Theora in Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge.[8]
In October 2023, Google announced their plans to deprecate and remove support for the Theora video codec starting with experiments reducing Theora support in Chrome 120 and a full removal in Chrome 123, Google states that the reason for the removal is due to low use and security risks associated with the codec.[9] [10]
On October 17, 2007, the World Wide Web Consortium encouraged interested people to take part in a "Video on the Web Workshop", held on December 12, 2007, for two days.[11] A number of global companies were involved, submitting position papers.[12] Among them, Nokia's paper[13] states that "a W3C-led standardization of a 'free' codec, or the active endorsement of proprietary technology such as Ogg [...] by W3C, is, in our opinion, not helpful". Xiph.org's codecs, while licensed under a BSD-style permissive free software license, implement a standard controlled by Xiph.org themselves, rather than a multi-vendor community such as MPEG. Apple Inc., a member of the MPEG LA, has also opposed the inclusion of Ogg formats in the HTML standard on the grounds that H.264 performs better and is already more widely supported, citing patents on their codec's efficiency and the lack of precedents of "Placing requirements on format support", even at the "SHOULD" level, in HTML specifications.[14]
On December 10, 2007, the HTML 5 specification was updated,[15] replacing the reference to Theora and Vorbis with a placeholder:[16]
The removal of the Ogg formats from the specification made it completely file format neutral, like previous versions of HTML. The decision was criticized by a number of Web developers. A follow-up discussion also occurred on the W3C questions and answers blog.[17]
In response to criticism, the WHATWG has cited concerns over the Ogg formats still being within patent lifetime and thus vulnerable to unknown patents.[18] Such submarine patents may also exist for formats like MP3. Also, the AVC patent licensing policy is subject to change in a not-yet-clear manner.[19]
As of December 31, 2020, Adobe Flash Player has stopped receiving support from Adobe,[20] with HTML video being one of the main technologies replacing it.[21]
"WebRTC Audio Codec and Processing Requirements" Internet standard drafts, published in 2011–2013, require free formats, including Opus, which was developed, among others, by programmers associated with Xiph.Org Foundation (the maintainer of Ogg).[22] [23]