iPlayer set for H.264 and AAC
August 15, 2008
Writing on the BBC Internet blog, Huggers suggested that the BBC has always been a strong advocate and driver of open industry standards. "Without these standards, TV and radio broadcasting would simply not function," he wrote. "I believe that the time has come for the BBC to start adopting open standards such as H.264 and AAC for our audio and video services on the web. These technologies have matured enough to make them viable alternatives to other solutions."
He noted that one of the key drivers in making audio and video distribution possible via the Internet was the great advances in compression technologies (codecs). "Obviously, broadband adoption and ever more capable PCs and mobile devices helped a lot – but in the end, it has been the codecs that have made the real difference," he said
"The advantage for the audience will be a noticeable improvement in audio and video quality. Furthermore, it should become easier for the media to simply work across a broader range of devices. While it’s not a magic bullet, it certainly is a significant step in the right direction. The first service to make content available using these open standards based codecs will be iPlayer
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