Media News - Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Mozilla goes to bat for open-source video on the Web

If Mozilla has its way, you'll soon be able to watch streaming video on sites all over the web without ever having to use a plug-in. The software maker announced Monday that native support for the open-source Threora video format will be added to Firefox 3.1, the next version of its popular web browser. Theora files can be embedded directly into web pages just like images and viewed in any browser that supports Theora playback - no plug-in to download, so special software to install. Furthermore, Mozilla has set up a USD 100,000 grant to foster the development of new tools, player technologies and codec enhancements to display, store and stream Theora videos and its companion Vorbis audio format. The grant will be administered by the non-profit Wikimedia foundation. Monday's news is sure to cause a heap of worry at Adobe, Apple and Microsoft. The giants own the web's leading media playback and streaming technologies, and collect the lucrative licensing payments for their use. (Wired)

Bookmark this : | Listen to this article | Sphere: Related Content

• Home |
• Seminars  |
• Events |
• Media Landscape |
• Newsroom|
• Media News|
• Resources

Terms of service and Privacy policy.

Copyright © 1992- 2010 European Journalism Centre. All rights reserved.

Valid XHTML and CSS.

European Journalism Centre

Sonneville-lunet 10
6221KT Maastricht
The Netherlands

Tel. : +31 43 325 40 30
Fax : +32 2 400 42 20

E-mail: info[at]ejc.net