VP8

Royalty-free video codec for legacy WebM compatibility.

What is VP8

VP8 is an open, royalty-free video codec originally developed by On2 Technologies and released by Google in 2010 as part of the WebM project. VP8 offers compression efficiency roughly comparable to H.264 Baseline profile but with a royalty-free license. Although VP9 and AV1 have largely superseded VP8 for new projects, VP8 remains relevant for older WebM deployments and legacy video workflows. VP8 is supported by Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, but not by Safari.

When to Choose VP8

Choose VP8 when:

• You maintain a legacy system that mandates VP8 — some older implementations only negotiate VP8.
• You need a royalty-free codec with fast encoding speed and don't require high compression — VP8 is simpler than VP9/AV1.
• You are producing WebM content for maximum backward compatibility with older browsers.

Consider alternatives when:

• You are starting a new project — VP9 is strictly better in every dimension (compression, quality, support) and also royalty-free.
• You need Safari/iOS playback — VP8 is not supported. Use H.264.
• You want better compression — VP9 saves ~35% and AV1 saves ~50% over H.264 at equivalent quality.

Key Characteristics

Browser & Device Support

How Qencode Handles VP8

Qencode encodes VP8 using libvpx for WebM output. Specify libvpx as the video codec.

{
  "query": {
    "source": "https://your-storage.com/video.mp4",
    "format": [
      {
        "output": "webm",
        "video_codec": "libvpx",
        "resolution": 2160,
        "quality": 20,
        "audio_codec": "libopus"
      }
    ]
  }
}

VP8 vs. VP9

What It Costs

Source Video Minutes

SD$0.01

Total Cost$0.01

1

1M

Format

WEBM

Codec

VP8

Framerate

25

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