On Saturday 5th of April 2014, a 4chan Developer posting under a regular user invited /g/eeks to post their WebMs. The thread was eventually filled with plenty of WebMs from anime clips to video games footage. Some of the WebMs are conversions from gif files. Some of the files are small viewing size and some of them large of the High Definition viewing type. But they were all in common, silent.
Yes, the test was a great success in /g/.
Then tomorrow on Sunday April 6, a board notice announced that 4chan is supporting WebMs on all boards. There was a post on the recent resurrected 4chan blog about it. But, it did not disclose what a WebM is:
WebM is an open, royalty-free, media file format designed for the web.
WebM defines the file container structure, video and audio formats. WebM files consist of video streams compressed with the VP8 video codec and audio streams compressed with the Vorbis audio codec. The WebM file structure is based on the Matroska container.</i>
http://www.webmproject.org/about/
WebM was created because before the creation there was no open source video format. Due to its versatility, it’s highly efficient and allows simplify at a cost savings. Something 4chan can easily implement as a video file upload option, and did. There are many advantages to a WebM, most obviously there the fact that you can view videos at full resolution with a small download time, if you view it with no sound.
Current limits on WebM files are a maximum file size is 3072KB, a maximum duration of 120 seconds, a maximum resolution of 2048x2048 pixels, and of course: No audio streams.
Yes, for now 4chan only allows silent WebMs but I can see a whole lot of horizons with this type of file format on a anonymous forum known for its creativity: new memes and new types of memes, new ways of conveying information. Already we have seen video dumps on the WebM format on /a/, /g/, and /v/, even one on /cgl/. And since this is 4chan, expect some porn in the mix, but I have not heard any reports on it.
Converting regular video to a WebM format is surprisingly easy. You can simply download Avidemux and then use the program to edit the footage into the length and size you want, remove the sound and convert it into WebM format.
To be honest, I wanted to make a videoboard when I first started the site when the YSchan existed in 2011, but again, 4chan manage to do it, although silently. With the introduction of WebM into the chanverse, expect all *chans in the Chanverse to introduce WebM as a file format, possibly one with a sound stream.