YouTube Will Offer Videos in WebM Format

Google's YouTube has announced it will begin offering HTML5 video in the open media file format called WebM.

WebM is an open, royalty-free media file format for video and audio on the Web. Users of WebM can submit their own code for improving WebM, which helps the program mature as it is improved upon by a multitude of developers. As more and more videos are transcoded into WebM, technical incompatibilities between devices will be reduced. This allows easier access to videos while building better infrastructure for online video. By using WebM, online video gains high quality real-time delivery and the possibility for playback on more devices.

All new videos uploaded to YouTube are now transcoded into WebM. YouTube is also in the process of transcoding the entirety of its massive video catalog into the format. So far nearly 30% of its catalog has been transcoded, focusing first on the most viewed videos.

YouTube pledges continued support for the H.264 codec for video on its site, and remains committed to the development of its HTML5 video player announced in January 2010. Read more about the enormous transcoding project and the benefits of WebM at http://tinyurl.com.3rtbwa2.