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I'm surprised to learn that modern codecs are so conservative, incrementing on the tech invented decades ago. I expected this field to be rampant with cutting-e

by znowi 13y ago

I'm surprised to learn that modern codecs are so conservative, incrementing on the tech invented decades ago. I expected this field to be rampant with cutting-edge research techniques. As the article says, the lapping transformation dates back to the early 90s. And it's considered "the next-next-generation" today. Why is it happening?

rikacomet 13y ago
all modern high tech things are somehow unique implementation of different basic techniques. A russian hook, for example was considered ultra modern in martial arts at some time, but in principle it used the same old muscles, with some basic steps, but new implementation.
ZeroGravitas 13y ago
Well if a government-blessed cartel ran industry X, and there was basically only one product with no competition, which was replaced on a predetermined 10 year cycle after a series of long political committee meetings and they'd built a massive patent thicket to prevent upstart competition and control rivals business models how much disruptive innovation would you expect to see?
- vanderZwan 13y ago
  And that, boys and girls, is why animated gifs are still being used today.
  - ralfd 13y ago
    ....what? The failure of APNG and MNG is not because of patents.
    - vanderZwan 13y ago
      I thought one of the suppopsed reasons that browser vendors didn't bother adding that was because we were going to have a working video tag soon.
- azakai 13y ago
  This is why codecs in WebGL, like ORBX, are so exciting. They require no new hardware, and every website can ship a different codec. This could really open up the area for innovation.
antninja 13y ago
I remember the BBC's Dirac codec uses wavelets. i don't know how it performs today, no one has adopted it.
- joezydeco 13y ago
  It's been 10 years since the Apple/Pixar wavelet compression was announced. Whatever happened to that one?
  - wmf 13y ago
    Pixlet was an intraframe intermediate codec (a predecessor to ProRes), not a delivery codec.
- klodolph 13y ago
  Yes, and the lesson from Dirac was that wavelets are cool, but they have some serious problems which must be overcome before they can be used in a complete codec. The consensus was that intra-frame prediction is very important, and it's relatively easy to do intra-frame prediction if you can predict the content of one discrete block based on blocks that appeared earlier in the stream. It's hard to do intra-frame prediction with wavelets, since they don't divide into blocks.
wolfgke 13y ago
That's what (software) patents are for (and video codecs are a heavily patent-encumbered field) - slowing down progress because of patent minefields you have to pay attention to when implementing a codec. It can easily happen that you missed a patent or can't circumvent it - then you have to pay protection money... A perfect ground for innovation...

by znowi 13y ago

rikacomet 13y ago

all modern high tech things are somehow unique implementation of different basic techniques. A russian hook, for example was considered ultra modern in martial arts at some time, but in principle it used the same old muscles, with some basic steps, but new implementation.

ZeroGravitas 13y ago

Well if a government-blessed cartel ran industry X, and there was basically only one product with no competition, which was replaced on a predetermined 10 year cycle after a series of long political committee meetings and they'd built a massive patent thicket to prevent upstart competition and control rivals business models how much disruptive innovation would you expect to see?

vanderZwan 13y ago
And that, boys and girls, is why animated gifs are still being used today.
- ralfd 13y ago
  ....what? The failure of APNG and MNG is not because of patents.
  - vanderZwan 13y ago
    I thought one of the suppopsed reasons that browser vendors didn't bother adding that was because we were going to have a working video tag soon.
azakai 13y ago
This is why codecs in WebGL, like ORBX, are so exciting. They require no new hardware, and every website can ship a different codec. This could really open up the area for innovation.

antninja 13y ago

I remember the BBC's Dirac codec uses wavelets. i don't know how it performs today, no one has adopted it.

joezydeco 13y ago
It's been 10 years since the Apple/Pixar wavelet compression was announced. Whatever happened to that one?
- wmf 13y ago
  Pixlet was an intraframe intermediate codec (a predecessor to ProRes), not a delivery codec.
klodolph 13y ago
Yes, and the lesson from Dirac was that wavelets are cool, but they have some serious problems which must be overcome before they can be used in a complete codec. The consensus was that intra-frame prediction is very important, and it's relatively easy to do intra-frame prediction if you can predict the content of one discrete block based on blocks that appeared earlier in the stream. It's hard to do intra-frame prediction with wavelets, since they don't divide into blocks.

wolfgke 13y ago

That's what (software) patents are for (and video codecs are a heavily patent-encumbered field) - slowing down progress because of patent minefields you have to pay attention to when implementing a codec. It can easily happen that you missed a patent or can't circumvent it - then you have to pay protection money... A perfect ground for innovation...