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This is probably a RTFM question on my part - but how does VLC play back H264? I presume it's part of the x264 library, but is this essentially a reverse-engin
by caycep 13y ago
This is probably a RTFM question on my part - but how does VLC play back H264? I presume it's part of the x264 library, but is this essentially a reverse-engineered H.264 codec?
The weirder thing is that I have some handbrake encoded videos from ~ 2008 or so that don't play "Error: codec 'h264' not available. Yet other videos with the exact same codec/media information play fine...which is spooky.
- astrange 13y agoVLC uses libavcodec, which has an LGPL H.264 decoder written from the spec, which is available for free.
- hsivonen 13y agoThere is no need to reverse engineer H.264. The spec is not secret. VLC operates out of France--not the U.S.
- ars 13y agoFrance or U.S. doesn't matter for this - the patent laws are more or less the same.
- pkteison 13y agoThey ignore patents and hope it isn't a problem. Not an option for a us-based corporation. "Q: Does FFmpeg use patented algorithms? A: We do not know, we are not lawyers so we are not qualified to answer this. Also we have never read patents to implement any part of FFmpeg, so even if we were qualified we could not answer it as we do not know what is patented. Furthermore the sheer number of software patents makes it impossible to read them all so no one (lawyer or not) could answer such a question with a definite no, those who do lie. What we do know is that various standards FFmpeg supports contain vague hints that any conforming implementation might be subject to some patent rights in some jurisdictions. . ." http://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html http://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html