What are VP8 and VP9?

VP8 and VP9 are both open-source video codecs. This means you can create the files with no charge. They offer high-quality compression for WebM video and Orbis audio.

Is VP9 better than VP8?

As a successor to the VP8 format, VP9 offers an improved standard of video quality. VP8, however, uses less data. It’s worth weighing up the pros and cons before choosing your file type.

Is VP8 better than H.264?

VP8 and H.264 are often compared closely and offer very similar performance. As H.264 has slightly wider support, it might be better suited to your project.

VP8 provides lossy keyframe compression. This means the file’s video quality will gradually deteriorate over time, as it’s compressed in saving, storing, uploads, and downloads.

VP8 files.

VP8 offers similar quality to the H.264 codec but is free from patents and royalties. You’ll find it on most of your favorite web browsers and some of the biggest video sharing sites.

Find out more about Google’s open-source codec, and how you can use it for your project.

Explore all video products

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

History of the VP8 file

How to use VP8 files

Pros and cons of VP8 files

How to open a VP8 file

How to create and edit a VP8 file

FAQs

Learn more about similar file types to VP8

What is a VP8 file?

The VP8 is a video codec — which is technology used to compress video files. It’s an open source, royalty free file type and is widely compatible with a range of Google platforms — from Chrome to YouTube. But you can also open VP8 on Opera, Firefox, Skype and other HTML5 platforms too.

VP8 shares many similarities with the H.264 codec and is often seen as an open-source alternative. You can use VP8 seamlessly alongside container files like WebM. VP8 boasts excellent picture quality data rate and encoding speed.

style

l spacing, two up

layout

1 | 2

History of the VP8 file.

The VP8 file was released by On2 Technologies in 2008, as a proprietary successor to the VP7 format. When Google acquired VP8 in 2010, they released the format as open source and royalty free. This was a bold step for the era — video streaming sites were in ascendency but were still dominated by closed-source formats like MPEG4 and Flash.

Despite early attempts to block VP8 with a patent pool, MPEG LA (MPEG Licensing Administration) later agreed to license certain patents out to Google for its VP8 rollout. This helped boost the format and bring about widespread compatibility.

How to use VP8 files.

Encoding and decoding.

As a video codec, the primary function of VP8 is to encode and decode video. Essentially, this means compressing the data to make it easier for you to stream, share, and store. VP8 is able to do this at speed and maintain excellent quality.

Multiplexing with WebM and Vorbis.

Multiplexing places different streams of video and audio into a single stream for video broadcasting. You can use VP8 alongside WebM video and Vorbis audio to do this and combine streams, ready to play.

Discover more codec files.

Pros and cons of VP8 files.

Pros.

Open source. VP8 is a royalty-free and open-source video codec. This means you can access the file easily and even enhance it.
Widely supported. A wide range of HTML5 platforms and programs are compatible with VP8. This means it’s a great choice to support video playback on the various browsers you might use.
Versatile. Aside from video streaming, you can use VP8 files for video conferencing, broadcasting and mobile recordings.
Great quality. VP8 quality is comparable to, if not an improvement on, H.264. This is a major advantage if you’re seeking an open-source alternative.

Cons.

Compatibility issues. Though the VP8 codec has wide support, it doesn’t quite match H.264.
Poorly equipped for HD. VP8 isn’t the best choice for HD video playback. But offers excellent quality for everyday streaming and broadcasting.

Find out which codec file types are supported by Adobe Premiere

How to open a VP8 file.

You can open VP8 files on Windows with VLC Media Player.

Right-click your VP8 file.
Select “Open with.”
Choose VLC Media Player to open your file.

How to create and edit an VP8 file.

As a delivery-only compression format, you can’t create and edit VP8 by itself. You’d need to work in the WebM format, which Adobe Premiere supports.

Once you’ve converted your VP8 file, using a safe and secure third-party conversion tool, you can create a new project in Adobe Premiere and select your filetype to start editing.