Windows Media Codec to be open sourced
In case anyone cares to know, the Windows Media codec (9) will be opensourced (or at least should be) very very soon.
Cant say how I got the news, but was from a top MS video person... and they didint mention anything about it being confidential info, so....
I didnt see any mainstream news about it so I figured I'd drop the news here. Make of it what you will.
At least it will get QuickTime to improve (hopefully) and get WindowsMedia 9 on Mac and Linux FINALLY.
Aside that its a friggen resource hog, Windows Media 9 codec aint too damn bad
Cant say how I got the news, but was from a top MS video person... and they didint mention anything about it being confidential info, so....
I didnt see any mainstream news about it so I figured I'd drop the news here. Make of it what you will.
At least it will get QuickTime to improve (hopefully) and get WindowsMedia 9 on Mac and Linux FINALLY.
Aside that its a friggen resource hog, Windows Media 9 codec aint too damn bad
Comments
Also, I'm not familiar with the codec, is it audio, video or what? Is it a competitor for mpeg4 or DVD? I'd heard of Windows Media Audio and WMA Pro, but what's the Windows Media codec? Any links to info would be appreciated.
A month ago (or two) I read an article which talked about M$ licenses the WM 9 codecs and code to one Linux app developer to work on a Linux-only media player that plays WM 9 files.
Can't remember where I saw that
Originally posted by stupider...likeafox
Also, I'm not familiar with the codec, is it audio, video or what? Is it a competitor for mpeg4 or DVD? I'd heard of Windows Media Audio and WMA Pro, but what's the Windows Media codec? Any links to info would be appreciated.
Windows media has audio and video codecs (each with different modes).
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...es/codecs.aspx
They're aimed at producing good results for high and low bandwidth streams, so it competes with mpeg4. Doom9 or somebody did a comparison recently among several recent codecs including WMV, transcoding DVDs. Microsoft performed only fairly but I haven't been able to get divx5 or xvid to match the WMVs on straight encodes.
Originally posted by wmf
Sorry, this just doesn't make any sense.
Of course it does. Typical monopolistic, predatory behavior. They are dumping. They are going to put MPEG-4 and AAC out of business (or at least force them to open source or drop their license fees to zero.) Machiavelli (sp?) would be proud.
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
Typical monopolistic, predatory behavior. They are dumping. They are going to put MPEG-4 and AAC out of business (or at least force them to open source or drop their license fees to zero.) Machiavelli (sp?) would be proud.
But what would MS gain? Open-sourcing stuff doesn't lock people into Windows.
Originally posted by wmf
But what would MS gain? Open-sourcing stuff doesn't lock people into Windows.
In a way it does. More people can/will use it and that will "let" it easily become the standard. This reminds me of an article I read where Microsoft knew that Win9x and Office97 were being pirated, but didn't do anything about it because it helped spread their product and make it "standard."
So it may not force people to use windows, but it promotes their software which will only help windows.
Originally posted by drumbug1
In a way it does. More people can/will use it and that will "let" it easily become the standard. This reminds me of an article I read where Microsoft knew that Win9x and Office97 were being pirated, but didn't do anything about it because it helped spread their product and make it "standard."
So it may not force people to use windows, but it promotes their software which will only help windows.
And...perhaps more importantly...it prevents another standard (which they do not control) from drawing anyone away from Windows. Plus, Microsoft already knows that victory goes to the cheapest.
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla:
Typical monopolistic, predatory behavior. They are dumping. They are going to put MPEG-4 and AAC out of business (or at least force them to open source or drop their license fees to zero.) Machiavelli (sp?) would be proud.
MPEG-4 deserves to be put out of business. The greed they displayed by charging fees to Net broadcasters probably set independent Net Media back a decade or more.
It would have been fine to keep the standard practice of charging a royalty on hardware and software broadcast tools like encoders and media players like Quicktime. Apple, for one, was willing to cut a check for millions. But no, they had to put a per-stream tax on every download. By the time they came to their senses and capped it. The goodwill for the format was gone. And MS had a foothold in yet another market due, not to superiority, but the stupidity of their rivals.
Originally posted by Frank777
MPEG-4 deserves to be put out of business. The greed they displayed by charging fees to Net broadcasters probably set independent Net Media back a decade or more.
It would have been fine to keep the standard practice of charging a royalty on hardware and software broadcast tools like encoders and media players like Quicktime. Apple, for one, was willing to cut a check for millions. But no, they had to put a per-stream tax on every download. By the time they came to their senses and capped it. The goodwill for the format was gone. And MS had a foothold in yet another market due, not to superiority, but the stupidity of their rivals.
Would not be the first time. Sadly.
Originally posted by wmf
Sorry, this just doesn't make any sense.
Who says that WM10 will be open sourced?
then MS came out 6 months later with licensing fees for WMV that were half that of MPEG4.
a classic screw job.
i doubt they would fully open source it now.
perhaps a partial open-sourcing and or a further lowering of licensing fees to really phuck the MPEG4 movement.
MPEG4 was supposed to be free.
at least that was the smoke they were blowing up our asses all throughout it's development...right up until it was time to implement.
it makes me so angry.
It won't however have to hurt Apple though since it'd be just another codec for them to include in QuickTime, which will prevail as a free server platform with no stream tax, and a framework for a multitude of content making software.
MPEG4 needs to be free anyway though.