H.264 is used on Blue-ray discs and in many consumer based video products but has some issues that must be considered. Many Web standards advocates oppose using it because it is based on a patented video compression format that licenser's have to pay a royalty fee in able to use it. This closes the open format discussion that Apple is using as one of its arguments against Adobe Flash content.
Google is trying to push its own WebM Format to replace H.264. The technology behind the WebM project originated with On2 a company that Google purchased in August 2009. The VP8 codec doesn't have the patent and royalty issues and still provides comparable video quality in respect with H.264.
As this battle continues to heat up to be the winner of the codec war, the loser in reality is us!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad