WebM Media Foundation Components for Microsoft Internet Explorer
Our WebM Microsoft Media Foundation components enable WebM playback support in Internet Explorer, beginning with IE9 on Windows Vista. They should also work on newer versions of IE and Windows.
Requirements
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Windows Vista, or newer Windows version
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Internet Explorer 9 or newer
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Depending on your security settings, you may need administrator privileges to install software on your system.
Installation
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Visit the WebM for Internet Explorer download page.
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Click the blue Download button and follow the prompts.
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Once installed, the WebM components will automatically check for updates and install them.
Additional Benefits
- The components also enable WebM playback on Windows Media Player (beginning with version 12 on Windows 7), since it's based on Media Foundation technology.
Uninstallation
- Control Panel > Uninstall a Program > WebM Media Foundation Components
Frequent Questions
Why do I need these components to play WebM in IE9?
Microsoft does not ship IE with WebM codecs built in, so the codecs must be installed in Windows separately. We worked closely with Microsoft to integrate WebM with IE, to help provide a great HTML5 user experience for Windows users. For more background, see Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch's blog post on the subject.
What is the benefit of playing videos in WebM?
WebM was built for the web. By testing hundreds of thousands of videos with widely varying characteristics, we found that the VP8 video codec delivers high-quality video while efficiently adapting to varying processing and bandwidth conditions across a broad range of devices. Also, the relative simplicity of VP8 (the video codec in WebM) makes it easy to integrate into existing environments and requires comparatively little manual tuning in the encoder to produce high-quality results.
Where can I watch WebM videos?
YouTube is supporting WebM in addition to its existing formats as part of its HTML5 experiment. For instructions, see our Users page.
Will you have components or plug-ins for older versions of IE?
No. Older versions of IE do not support HTML5 video functionality.
Where can I get more help on the components?
Please report any problems or questions on the webm- discuss mailing list / Google Group.
What are these components? Are they browser plug-ins?
The components are installed directly in Windows, not Internet Explorer. They are system-level software libraries built using Microsoft Media Foundation, a digital media platform in Windows Vista (and up). Because the components are installed in Windows, the components can render WebM in other applications that support MF, such as Windows Media Player.