Microsoft and Apple Should Standardize On MMT Video

I believe that Microsoft and Apple would benefit from endorsing and implementing the newly proposed MPEG Modern Media Transport (MMT) standard for web video.

Modern Media Transport will consist of the fragmented MP4 file format, the H.264 video codec, HTTP delivery, and a standard way to signal bitrate adaptation from the client. The goal is to use standard web servers and HTTP caches for delivery. Apple made a mistake with their .TS file implementation as part of their HTTP streaming scheme because it puts thousands of little files on disk that become impossible to manage. Microsoft got it right with their implementation of the MP4 container with fragmented chunks that can be stored within it. Apple got it right to implement adaptation with a file from a standard web server that provides the switching options to the client. I would have preferred the use of SMIL which is another standard that both Microsoft and Apple have supported before rather than the .M3U8 playlist that Apple used. I believe that Microsoft should give up on the idea of making their implementation dependent upon IIS and adopt the same file format for bitrate adaptation.

This standardization effort and the strong support of it by both Microsoft and Apple will help the industry that has been weakened by proprietary codecs, formats, and streaming protocols. If all goes well, this standard will be implemented by both Microsoft IE and Apple Safari to support the video tag of HTML5. Both should cover the MPEG license for H.264 playback in IE and Safari. Content creators will be able to encode one file and know that it will work on any Apple or Microsoft system without any extra browser plug-ins.

I think that any effort by Microsoft and Apple to create a common standard will have been influenced by their mutual desire to thwart both Adobe and Google. Google’s purchase of On2 and subsequent open source announcement for VP8 presents a new challenge to these web video standards. However, a bigger opportunity exists for Microsoft and Apple if they can find a common way to support the distribution of premium media content. Imagine buying a movie on iTunes on Windows 7 and being able to play it on both your XBox and your iPad! Disney’s KeyChest technology might make something like this possible.

Not a lot of information exists about the MMT standard online. For now, stay tuned to the MPEG.org site, or email me directly if you would like to learn more: erikh (at) vbrick.com.