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I doubt that anything is really final in google's hands. just look at how fast android is changing and evolving. Google will do what it needs to do to reach the
by barkingcat 16y ago
I doubt that anything is really final in google's hands. just look at how fast android is changing and evolving. Google will do what it needs to do to reach their goals, even if it means that they need to break backward compatibility. This is a company with so much resources it can probably design its own reference hardware implementation of vp8 at whatever stage of its evolution, regardless of backwards compatibility - and also persuade chip makers like TI and Qualcolm to include it in their product line at a moment's notice ie within 4 months or so. In this respect, I think the "finality" is overrated - the reviewer / x264 developer is thinking too small.
- jrockway 16y agothe reviewer / x264 developer is thinking too small And, there is always a bit of "uh oh, my life's work is suddenly becoming irrelevant, even though it's technically better". One thing I've learned from reading HN is that good technical solutions rarely get you much. What you need is a good product. H.264 is a great technical solution, but a horrible product. VP8 is not as good technically, but it's exactly the product the Internet needs. Sad, but that's the reality of it.
- astrange 16y agoThe work in x264 isn't that irrelevant suddenly. H.264 has great market penetration and isn't going anywhere. And x264 could already be adapted into a VP8 encoder if necessary; it'd work better than libvpx, as the fundamental algorithms and psy optimizations are all better tuned.
- Locke1689 16y agoYeah, Jason's life work is really in jeopardy. I mean, as the primary author of the best performing video encoder in existence in his 3rd year of undergraduate study, how will he regain any meaning in his life?
- jrockway 16y agoThe word "bit" is crucial to the understanding of my post.