What does it mean for Chrome users? Chrome will eventually only support HTML5 web videos that are making use of Google’s own WebM (VP8) codec or Theora video codecs, and will refuse to play H.264 videos if the website in question streams video in that format only. While that’s not the case for Youtube and maybe a few other sites, the majority of Internet sites will not encode their videos multiple times to make sure they can be watched in all browsers.

Lets take a look at browsers and their HTML5 video support:

• Google Chrome WebM8, Theora
• Firefox, WebM8, Theora
• Opera, WebM8, Theora
• Internet Explorer 9, H.264
• Safari, H.264

Google Chrome until now was the only browser that supported all video codecs. Internet users now have the problem that their favorite browser may not be able to play videos that they want to watch on the Internet, which means that they need to keep a second browser installed, or download the videos to the computer to watch them locally.

H.264 is the Blu-Ray codec and Apple makes use of it as well in their products. If you look at entertainment devices you notice that the majority plays H.264 but not WebM or Theora.

The majority of commenters at the official blog announcement over at the Chromium blog appear to disagree with Google on the move. Some thing Google tries to push their own codec at the expense of the Chrome user experience, others state that the WebM8 codec is inferior to h.264 in quality.

What’s your take on this? And how will you handle HTML5 web video?

TubeMaster (via Download online video using TubeMaster Plus) is one of those applications. The portable application supports more than 100 video portals including the ever popular Youtube and Dailymotion but also some unsuspected ones like Hulu, IGN or ESPN. Not all web video portals could be tested because some will only show the videos to users of specific countries. A test of downloading web video from Hulu would be greatly appreciated.

The application uses its own browser that can be used to display the video portal websites. Videos will be automatically downloaded when they are played on the portal. This is unfortunately the only way to download videos from the various websites.

It is still a comfortable way to download web video. Besides the option to load the websites directly users can also use the search engine included to search for various on single or all web video websites.

A maximum of 500 search results can be displayed. The videos cannot be downloaded directly from the search. A click displays additional information about the selected web video and an option to load the video on the video portal’s website from where it will be automatically downloaded when it starts playing.

Another option is the mp3 search which leaves the user in the dark from where the files are coming. Quicktime is needed to play and download the mp3.

Videos can be automatically decoded which is the default option in TubeMaster. The user can choose between various video codecs and stop the conversion.

Tubemaster supports adult web video sites as well but that option is locked for users who subscribe to the service. Downloading from the “normal” web video portals is completely free though.