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Tip #1436: Safari to Support WebM on Macs

… for Codecs & Media

Tip #1436: Safari to Support WebM on Macs

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

WebM is optimized for web streaming.

The WebM logo.

Topic $TipTopic

According to reports on MacRumors and other sites, beta versions of macOS Big Sur 11.3 support playing WebM videos in Safari.

MacRumors reports: “In Safari, there’s support for WebM video playback, allowing users to play WebM videos using Apple’s browser. WebM is a niche video format designed to be a royalty-free alternative to the H.264 codec used in the MP4 format. WebM allows video files to remain small without sacrificing quality and can be played with little processing power, making it ideal for webpages and browsers.”

Link: MacRumors.com.

WebM was first released in 2010. Apple Safari was the lone holdout among major browsers in supporting this format. There’s no announced date for when macOS 11.3 will be released, nor any indication if WebM will be supported by Apple’s media applications.

Learn more about WebM in Tip #1435.


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4 replies
  1. Brian Galford
    Brian Galford says:

    Apple could feel smug about the recent demise of Adobe’s Flash Player, which they did not support. But now the shoe is on the Microsoft foot, as Apple was the lone holdout of this format. All to the good, if we can all watch each other’s files no matter the browser. I have alternated between Safari and Firefox for years. I won’t do Chrome or gmail because I don’t particularly like Google’s data sweeping policies.

    Reply
    • Larry Jordan
      Larry Jordan says:

      Brian:

      I don’t think Apple feels smug about Flash, I suspect they feel relieved. From a security point of view, Flash was a mess. WebM, however, was developed mostly by Google, not Microsoft.

      What is NOT clear, at the moment, is how we are supposed to create WebM files.

      Larry

      Reply
    • Larry Jordan
      Larry Jordan says:

      Bill:

      Currently, FCP and Compressor do not support WebM. This is a coming feature, based upon beta software releases of Safari.

      Larry

      Reply

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