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You know what we actually need? A h.264-buyout. Let's ask MPEG-LA how much they are planning to earn by the time their licence runs out (2024?). It will probabl

by Entlin 16y ago

You know what we actually need? A h.264-buyout. Let's ask MPEG-LA how much they are planning to earn by the time their licence runs out (2024?). It will probably be ~200 Million or so. Then ask the whole internet to chip in. Result: all the open source people are happy, and we all get to use the higher quality codec in any application we can imagine. And we also get to keep our devices with their battery efficient dedicated h.264-decompression chips.

aw3c2 16y ago
Not going to happen. There are probably patents in there that they will use for the next codecs.
jarek 16y ago
Or we could just use VP8. All the open source people are happy, the codec will quickly improve, and the vast majority of your devices with their battery efficient dedicated H.264-decompression chips will be replaced by devices with battery efficient dedicated VP8 and H.264-decompression chips within three years. We also save 200 mill.
- recoiledsnake 16y ago
  >the codec will quickly improve I am sorry, but codecs don't work like regular software. Fixing bugs and issues in the encoder could make the resulting video incompatible with older decoders (decoders and encoders are not easily updateable in firmware devices such as consoles, set top boxes, mobile devices etc.). Therefore it's important to have a proper spec in place and then improve encoders and decoders. A dump of C code is not a spec like Google did with VP8.
  - jarek 16y ago
    Fair enough. Then all of the above minus codec improving and plus video quality slightly worse than H.264. I mean, if you want to pitch in to buy the better one, be my guest. Maybe start a Kickstarter or something.
rbanffy 16y ago
> Then ask the whole internet to chip in. And enable them? Let them become irrelevant.
- Entlin 16y ago
  Well they did valuable work. It's only the MPEG-LA that's acting badly. In fact, one should probably bypass the MPEG-LA and talk directly to the patent holders.

by Entlin 16y ago

aw3c2 16y ago

Not going to happen. There are probably patents in there that they will use for the next codecs.

jarek 16y ago

Or we could just use VP8. All the open source people are happy, the codec will quickly improve, and the vast majority of your devices with their battery efficient dedicated H.264-decompression chips will be replaced by devices with battery efficient dedicated VP8 and H.264-decompression chips within three years. We also save 200 mill.

recoiledsnake 16y ago
>the codec will quickly improve I am sorry, but codecs don't work like regular software. Fixing bugs and issues in the encoder could make the resulting video incompatible with older decoders (decoders and encoders are not easily updateable in firmware devices such as consoles, set top boxes, mobile devices etc.). Therefore it's important to have a proper spec in place and then improve encoders and decoders. A dump of C code is not a spec like Google did with VP8.
- jarek 16y ago
  Fair enough. Then all of the above minus codec improving and plus video quality slightly worse than H.264. I mean, if you want to pitch in to buy the better one, be my guest. Maybe start a Kickstarter or something.

rbanffy 16y ago

> Then ask the whole internet to chip in. And enable them? Let them become irrelevant.

Entlin 16y ago
Well they did valuable work. It's only the MPEG-LA that's acting badly. In fact, one should probably bypass the MPEG-LA and talk directly to the patent holders.