Use of Ogg formats in HTML5

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The

, but the recommendation was soon after dropped.

Motivation

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Because some visitors and publishers choose not to take part in the use of

• The potential for universal adoption of Theora and Vorbis, no matter the computer or the user, would ease "codec hell" by eliminating an unnecessary amount of codecs required to view and publish videos to a select few.^[citation needed]
• Browser plugins needed to accommodate the many different codecs would then become a thing of the past:
  • Browsers could handle the playback of Theora and Vorbis and allow the user to customize the manner in which that was done.
  • Bugs and exploits in obsolete versions of those plugins would affect the user less, as they are phased out; the loss of multiple attack vectors would happen once browser plugins were ultimately removed.^{[citation needed]}
  • The HTML5-conformant player, not having to be coded for compatibility with different browsers, could make bugs and exploits easier to find during browser development, and any exploits found would only be able to target that one browser.^{[clarification needed]}
• Free software encoders would compete with rival proprietary encoders, increasing encoder quality through competition.^{[citation needed]}
• Embedding of multimedia by the use of clear and straightforward video and audio elements would require less effort than mastering the object element or learning ActionScript as required by Adobe Flash.^{[citation needed]}

Microsoft began work in October 2017 on implementing support for Ogg, Vorbis, and Theora in Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge.^[9]

In October 2023, Google announced their plans to deprecate and remove support for the Theora video codec starting with experiments reducing Theora support in Chrome 120 and a full removal in Chrome 123, Google states that the reason for the removal is due to low use and security risks associated with the codec.^[10][11]

Opposition

On October 17, 2007, the

On December 10, 2007, the HTML 5 specification was updated,[16] replacing the reference to Theora and Vorbis with a placeholder:^[17]

It would be helpful for interoperability if all browsers could support the same codecs. However, there are no known codecs that satisfy all the current players: we need a codec that is known to not require per-unit or per-distributor licensing, that is compatible with the open source development model, that is of sufficient quality as to be usable, and that is not an additional submarine patent risk for large companies. This is an ongoing issue and this section will be updated once more information is available.^[18]

The removal of the Ogg formats from the specification made it completely file format neutral, like previous versions of HTML. The decision was criticized by a number of Web developers. A follow-up discussion also occurred on the W3C questions and answers blog.^[19]

In response to criticism, the WHATWG has cited concerns over the Ogg formats still being within patent lifetime and thus vulnerable to unknown patents.^[20] Such

Adoption

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As of December 31, 2020, Adobe Flash Player has stopped receiving support from Adobe,[22] with HTML5 video being one of the main technologies replacing it.^[23]

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