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VP8 is an amazing codec. If Google makes it available under FOSS terms, it would be huge. It's more CPU friendly than H.264 while providing better quality. W
by mdasen 17y ago
VP8 is an amazing codec. If Google makes it available under FOSS terms, it would be huge. It's more CPU friendly than H.264 while providing better quality. Wow. Maybe it's a little far-fetched to think that Google would spend $106M to open-source something, but when you think about it many companies have paid more to do the same (or for things that were already open source). Novell paid $210M for SUSE. Sun paid $1B for MySQL. And having the best video codec as a free codec does fit with Google's open strategy.
And it might even be cheaper over the long run. Remember, while H.264 is free to broadcast right now, there are fees coming in a year or two just for pushing H.264 over the web. If nothing else, Google's ownership of On2 provides a hedge against getting hit too hard by royalties.
- dan_the_welder 17y agoOne hundred and six million dollars is nothing in this game. Youtube acquisition price. 1.6 Billion http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15196982/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15196982/ Youtube estimated daily losses 1.65 Million http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=715&doc_id=175123& http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=715&#...; They could pay that shit off by Thanksgiving if they push a browser plugin out by mid September.
- chrisbolt 17y agoWhen are people going to stop citing the wildly inaccurate Credit Suisse report? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=573281 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=573281
- amvp 17y agoHas anybody else noticed a pattern towards more profanity on the site then there used to be? I'm not offended, but I don't really think superfluous curse words really add much to a discussion.
- anigbrowl 17y agoThing is though that h264 royalties are capped at $5m/year (for next year) http://www.mpegla.com/avc/AVC_TermsSummary.pdf http://www.mpegla.com/avc/AVC_TermsSummary.pdf and even that is only in hardware - internet broadcast is license free for another 18 months, and licenses are not allow to grow in cost by more than 10% per 5 year renewal term. So given that this acquisition is equivalent to ~18 years of h.264 royalties I doubt the motivation is purely financial.