| How to play WebM files | Currently Viewing: WebM Solutions Homepage -- Go To |
How to play WebM files
This section is dedicated to playing back WebM multimedia content. For now, playback instructions for WebM content are limited to solutions for playing WebM with Microsoft Windows software, and other options including locating and playing WebM files on the Internet and how to rip WebM high definition content from YouTube. If you would like to know more about WebM, there is some technical information at the bottom of this page too.Options for playing WebM files
Below are the options we have available for playing WebM multimedia files. This list will continually be updated as new software releases are made and more options are available for the emerging format.
 | Play WebM files on Microsoft Windows |
|---|---|
 | Play WebM files with Windows Media Player on WindowsRecommended Option: You can play WebM content in Windows Media Player by installing the correct filters and other software. This will guide you through it. Read More! |
 | Play WebM files with VLC Media Player on WindowsEasiest Option: VLC Media Player is the easiest and fastest option for playing WebM files because it supports the container, video and audio. Read More! |
 | Play WebM files with Media Player Classic on WindowsAlternative Option: Media Player Classic has some core support for WebM files. This player is an optional alternative to Windows Media Player. Read More! |
 | Other Options for WebM |
|---|---|
 | Find and play WebM content on the InternetOptional: This page looks at finding WebM content on the Internet that you can play back in a compatible web browser. Read More! |
 | Download WebM videos from YouTubeOptional: YouTube has a large amount of WebM content already available for viewing. This page looks at how to rip WebM files from YouTube. Read More! |
Technical Information: What are WebM files?
WebM is a media file format designed for use on the web. It competes with Adobe's Flash format and H.264 and has a major advantage in being an open, royalty-free multimedia format. It defines a matroska-like multimedia container structure consisting of video compressed with the open VP8 codec and audio compressed with the Vorbis audio codec.
The WebM project grew largely out of Google's acquisition of On2 Technologies in 2009. The project distributes WebM related software under a BSD-like license structure.
It was announced at Google's I/O conference in 2010, at which time the support of the Mozilla Firefox browser, Opera browser and Google Chrome browswer was revealed. Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 will also support WebM content as long as the necessary codecs are installed. Media players such as the VLC player natively support WebM. Google's Android mobile operating system is also slated to get support for WebM in the fourth quarter of 2010.
As for where to find WebM content, Google's video giant YouTube already offers WebM videos with its HTML 5 experimental player with all video files with a resolution higher than 720p being automatically encoded to WebM (420p + 720p as of August 2010) when uploaded to the site.
The WebM project hopes to acheve the following goals..
- Low computational footprint to enable playback on any device, including low-power netbooks, handhelds, tablets, etc.
- Simple container format
- Highest quality real-time video delivery
- Click and encode. Minimal codec profiles, sub-options; when possible, let the encoder make the tough choices.
As of August 2010, the developer preview releases of browsers supporting WebM are not optimized thoroughly and therefore, for now, have a higher computational footprint for screen rendering than the project expects for general releases.
| How to play WebM files | Currently Viewing: WebM Solutions Homepage -- Go To |
Written by: James Delahunty
