WebM: A media container format by Google

To mark the success of the web, it’s highly important to have an open and freely implementable technologies. Free and open technologies such as HTML, HTTP, TCP/IP, etc. contribute in this field.

A media container format, WebM introduced by Google, is an open and royalty-free offering high-quality format designed for the web.

WebM is based on MKV i.e. Matroska container format, which uses EBML structure to store information, tagging and organizing data in hierarchical tree-like structure.  EBML is a basically binary version (non human readable) of XML, while XML is text-based.  WebM encapsulates with video and audio formats where video streams are compressed with the VP8 video codec and audio streams with Vorbis audio codec.

VLC media player, MPlayer and K-Multimedia Player have native support for playing WebM files and YouTube offers WebM videos as part of its HTML5 player. All uploaded files are encoded into WebM. It aims in offering an alternative to use in the HTML5 video tag.

WebM includes:

• A container format

• A high-quality video codec i.e. VP8 and VP9

• An audio codec i.e. Vorbis, an open source and broadly implemented codec

Service:

• YouTube offers WebM videos as part of its HTML5 player. All uploaded files are encoded into WebM in various resolutions. YouTube has committed to encode its entire portfolio of videos to WebM. The YouTube app uses WebM for streaming videos or H.263 as a fall-back option.

• Wikimedia uses WebM for the HTML5 player.

• Skype into Skype 5.0 software has implemented the VP8 codec

Benefits of WebM:

• Openness and innovation - In order to reach maximum audience, it is important for the web to be easy, free to implement and improve. With video being core to the web experience, a high-quality, open video format choice is needed. Under BSD style license, WebM is free and open sourced.

• WebM, Optimized for web - Like traditional broadcast, the serving of video on the web is also different from offline mediums. Existing video formats were designed to serve the needs of these mediums and do it very well. WebM is focused on addressing the unique needs of serving video on the web.

  • Low computational footprint to enable playback on any devices like  less- power netbooks, handhelds, tablets, etc.

  • With Simple container format delivers real-time video with highest quality

  • WebM focuses on click and encode. Minimal codec profiles and sub-options. When possible, let the encoder make the tough choices.