H.264 Mass Appeal Growing

Published May 17, 2010 00:00 AM
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While H.264 is clearly established in the video surveillance marketplace as the 'best' CODEC, its appeal is likely to get a broader boast from its rapid growth in consumer media.

The background to this is the interesting and escalating war between Apple and Adobe. While Flash has been the de facto standard for web streaming video, Apple's CEO and others have advocated switching to H.264 and HTML5.

Reports indicate 66% of all web videos are already available in H.264 (with YouTube recently adding H.264 support for its library - 40% of all web videos by itself).

While technologically and operationally this should have little direct impact on surveillance, this should increase end-user awareness and desire for H.264 over MJPEG and MPEG-4.

On a related note, many have expressed fears of H.264 licensing fees. Earlier in 2010, the license holders agreed [link no longer available] note to charge fees until at least 2016, defusing the concern for at least the next 5 years.