Comment 34 for bug 593477

So in your country, both H.264 and VP8 are on the same grounds legally. Then why do you choose H.264 over VP8?

1-The VP8 format bitstream is final, and its patents are provided under an open license, so there is nothing left for Google to control, apart from developing/improving the reference implementation. Other independent implementations for both decoding and encoding exist. They don't relate to Google whatsoever.

2-Patent infringement claims have been there since eternity, and they're literally nothing but FUD. Where is the patent pool that was being put together to "go after" Theora?

3-Google said several times it has no intention to control the format and, for future iterations of the format, they called anyone willing to join them. However, why would companies and research firms submit their patents and ideas to the WebM project when they can submit them to MPEG-LA and collect massive royalties?

4-Lead x264 developer stated that, with enough work, VP8 can have equal quality to H.264. And on IRC, he acutally said it that VP8 can surpass H.264 in 8-bit given a good encoder. He is just saying that the reference implementation sucks and is giving the format a bad name.

I would like to thank Google for their investment in cracking the MPEG-LA audio/video monopoly and for their trials in making a better, patent-troll-free world. Lastly, I don't actually think VLC is a recommended way to encode video. Therefore I don't really care if H.264 continues to be the default.