VP8 is a royalty-free video codec open-sourced by Google in 2010 as part of the WebM project.
VP8 was the first mandatory-to-implement (MTI) video codec in WebRTC. It provides quality roughly on par with H.264 Baseline Profile at similar bitrates.
VP8’s role in WebRTC
VP8 played a crucial role in WebRTC’s early adoption:
- Royalty-free: Unlike H.264, VP8 has no patent licensing costs, allowing free and open WebRTC implementations
- Universal support: All WebRTC browsers support VP8
- Baseline compatibility: Ensures any two WebRTC endpoints can always communicate
VP8 vs modern codecs
While VP8 remains widely supported, newer codecs offer better efficiency:
- VP9: ~30-50% better compression, supports SVC
- AV1: ~30% better than VP9, also supports SVC
- H.264: Similar quality to VP8 but benefits from widespread hardware acceleration
VP8 is still commonly used as a fallback codec and in scenarios where maximum compatibility is needed.
