Archive notice: This article was originally published on June 19, 2013. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Google is said to have completed the open VP9 video-compression format and wants to integrate it into Chrome version 29 in August and enable it by default.
Compared with its predecessor VP8, VP9 uses a 50 percent lower bitrate, according to Google, while offering the same quality. Together with the Opus audio codec, the video codec is intended to be used in the WebM file format, which is designed for HTML5 video and WebRTC.
Because direct codec competitor H.265 is encumbered by patents, Google hopes that VP9’s free licence will lead to wider adoption. H.265 patent administrator MPEG-LAN had already collected patent claims against VP8, however, and twelve companies subsequently filed claims against Google’s video codec. Google was able to reach a licensing agreement with eleven of these companies.
The final and twelfth company, which was also involved in developing H.264 and H.265, is Nokia. Google has not yet been able to reach an agreement with it, and it remains unclear which claims the mobile-phone manufacturer will assert.
It is still unclear when the video-compression format will also reach YouTube. Several demo videos offer a preview.
In an initial presentation, Google introduced WebM with the new VP9 video codec:
Image: Presentation at Google I/O
