The presentation I did during a TechTok session at TokBox. Just when we thought we’re done with the video codec wars in WebRTC – we found out we’re only just beginning. In the past several weeks we’ve seen the names Thor, Daala, VP9 and H.265 thrown in the news as potential candidates to replace our current generation of video codecs. How is that going to play, and where are we headed with all this? I don’t know, but I can make a few educated guesses about it :-) Join me and TokBox for an interesting discussion about the power plays of the video coding industry.

1. WebRTC Codec Wars:
Rebooted
Are we there yet?
September 2015
Tsahi Levent-Levi

2. 10/9/2015 2

3. What should be the mandatory
codec in WebRTC?
10/9/2015 3

4. 10/9/2015 4
It’s already there. Google implemented it in Chrome. Everyone’s using it

5. 10/9/2015 5
That’s what the industry knows and loves already

6. 10/9/2015 6
Royalty free – no patent payments!

7. 10/9/2015 7
Because… well… how do we interoperate? Oh – and Cisco just open sourced their
implementation!

8. Both?
A decision was made NOT to decide
10/9/2015 8

9. Don’t worry -
It gets worse
10/9/2015 9

10. Current situation
10/9/2015 10
Audio Video
G.711, Opus VP8, VP9, H.264
G.711, Opus VP8, H.264
G.711, G.722, Opus H.264
AAC-ELD H.264 / H.265
G.711, Opus VP8, H.264

11. Let’s talk video
10/9/2015 11

12. How should we measure a video codec?
• Error resilience?
• Patent costs?
• Hardware acceleration availability?
10/9/2015 12
H.261 H.263 H.264 H.265
Complexity
H.261 H.263 H.264 H.265
Bit rate

13. H.265 and royalties
10/9/2015 13
Apple, BBC, ETRI, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HUMAX,
IBEX PT, Infobridge, Intellectual Discovery,
JVC KENWOOD, KAIST, KBS, KT, M&K, NEC,
NEWRACOM, NHK, NTT, NTT DOCOMO,
Orange SA, Samsung, Siemens,
SK Planet, SK Telecom, Tagivan II, Vidyo, 6
universities
GE, Technicolor, Dolby, Philips, and
Mitsubishi Electric
$0.2 per unit $0.8 per mobile implementation
None 0.5% of content
owners attributable gross revenue

14. The battle over the next video codec
10/9/2015 14
H.261
H.263
H.264
?
?
VP10

15. The battle over the next video codec
10/9/2015 15
H.261
H.263
H.264
?
?
VP10

16. And then came the Alliance for Open
Media
10/9/2015 16
H.261
H.263
H.264
?
HEVC
H.265
VP8
VP9
?

17. Who’s in the alliance?
10/9/2015 17

18. Who’s missing from the alliance?
10/9/2015 18
DLG Media

19. Who’s missing from the alliance?
10/9/2015 19

20. But where’s audio?
10/9/2015 20

21. We have Opus but…
• No real energy spent there in the past year
• There’s little in the way of hardware
acceleration
• No “What’s next” for audio
10/9/2015 21

22. Codecs in
WebRTC (and VoIP)
will continue being
a headache
10/9/2015 22

23. Thank You!
10/9/2015 23
Tsahi Levent-Levi
https://bloggeek.me
tsahil@bloggeek.me