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WebM vs. Ogg Theora

How would one compare Ogg Theora and WebM against the following parameters:-

  1. Efficiency of compression
  2. Efficiency of computation
  3. Issues in Wider adaptability (why wouldn't someone make a hardward chip that does Ogg or WebM transcoding; like it is currently done for H.264)
  4. Possible/Future intellectual property issues
  5. Availability in existing devices

The reason I ask these questions is because I need to choose between Ogg Theora and WebM format for a software project and I am a FLOSS believer.

Solution

  • Good graph from this 2011 article:

    compatibility matrix of H.264, WebM, and Ogg/Theora on various platforms

    This is a tough call, but honestly, WebM is probably going to win out in the end considering it's Google's project. Ogg will most likely stay what it is now in its audio counterpart-- an open standard that is not widely-adopted even though it's superior in some ways.

    H.264 is Apple's, WebM is Google's. Apple will most likely end up adopting WebM, and Google will most likely continue to pare back H.264 on their devices.

    I'd base your decision more on longevity than on video quality, the reason being that the quality isn't that different, and even better quality could end up losing in the end. Remember Betamax?