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Chromium browsers compiled without proprietary codecs require webm. It's a small subset of people (I am one), but I just don't play and/or leave sites with mp4 only.


Why is that? Are you "afraid" that mp4 have some embedded code that will run...idk I just made that up!


.mp4 videos usually use h264 compression (and now h265 for 4K/HDR), which is not free or open source. .webm uses VP8 or VP9.


It is kinda-sorta free and open source, though (at least the decoding part). Cisco pays for their codec, and as long as you use their implementation you are covered by their license.

Specifically, to be covered you have to download a binary release from https://github.com/cisco/openh264/releases during the installation to be covered by Cisco's MPEG LA patent license, but they provide builds for most major platforms.




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