Re: HTML5 Last Call May 2011 & DASH/Adaptive Streaming

On Feb 15, 2011, at 11:29 PM, Silvia Pfeiffer wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 5:03 PM, Mark Watson <watsonm@netflix.com> wrote:
>> 
>> On Feb 15, 2011, at 4:59 PM, Philippe Le Hegaret wrote:
>> 
>>> On Tue, 2011-02-15 at 18:40 -0500, Ali C. Begen (abegen) wrote:
>>>> I think folks need to agree on the container format not the codec type. A good container format will be good for several codecs that exist today and will yet to come.
>>> 
>>> My understanding is that the IP issues surrounding the codec types are
>>> also surrounding the container formats and the streaming technologies.
>> 
>> IANAL but I don't think that is quite true. To my knowledge there are no IP issues with the ISO Base Media File Format (ISO/IEC 14496-12) which is one of the more widely used container formats.
> 
> 
> I believe it is the MPEG-2 systems patent pool that is relevant here:
> http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/M2S/Pages/Intro.aspx

That would be relevant if you wanted to use DASH with MPEG 2 Transport Streams. But that's just an option and Basic On-Demand profile is based on the ISO Base Media File Format. DASH is not part of MPEG-2 Systems.

> 
> And MPEG-4 systems still has a patent pool, even though licenses are
> not offered any more.
> http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/M4S/Pages/Intro.aspx
> 

So, again, IANAL, but I believe the ISO Base Media File Format is widely used without anyone paying any royalties to anyone else. The situation with mp4 may be different.

...Mark

> Best Regards,
> Silvia.
> 
> 
>> For "streaming technologies", it is my hope that DASH will be Royalty-Free and some companies have already stated that intention in respect of their IPR.
>> 
>> This is a very different state of affairs from codecs such as H.264, for example.
>> 
>> ...Mark
>> 
>>> So, I'd be surprised if any agreement was reached within the HTML
>>> Working Group on those topics. I can't imagine a different conclusion
>>> that the H.264/Theora discussion at this point. In any case, as Glenn
>>> alluded to, HTML has been technology neutral since the beginning. Unless
>>> I'm mistaken, we don't require implementations to support a specific
>>> image format.
>>> 
>>> Philippe
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
> 

Received on Wednesday, 16 February 2011 16:06:19 UTC