Re: A royalty-free video format

On Monday, February 9, 2004, 3:58:04 PM, Panagiotis wrote:


PI> Hi,

PI> In the SVG 1.2 draft specification, there's a note in section 7.2 about
PI> a suggestion for a mandatory video format which would not require 
PI> royalty payment.

PI> I would like to suggest the VP3 video codec which is released for _any_
PI> use by On2. The VP3 codec does contain patented portions, but On2 has
PI> given the irrevocable license to use it in any way.

PI> As far as I know, this is the only advanced codec which is free for any
PI> usage without paying royalties.

Thanks for suggesting this, I am looking into it.

On the one hand, it would be very valuable; on the other hand, the VP3
website indicates that development moved to Xiph, and Xiph Theora is
incomplete and still alpha:

>> Q: Can I use Theora to encode stuff right now?

>> A: Yes, but we strongly, strongly recommend against it, for
>> anything but test-cases. This is not a full release in any sense of
>> the word, it is simply a milestone, and if you start encoding
>> things right away, there's a really good chance that it will break
>> when you try to play it with tools we release when the final
>> version is released.
http://www.theora.org/theorafaq.html

PI> The Xiph project, known for its Ogg Vorbis format, had negotiated this,
PI> for usage in their own new, but VP3 based video codec. This new codec
PI> itself is not yet had its official 1.0 release yet.

PI> See: http://www.theora.org/theorafaq.html "Q: Isn't vp3 a patented
PI> technology?"
PI> And: http://www.theora.org/cvs.html "[VP3 Legal Terms]"


Although, VP3 is upwards compatible with Theora.
http://www.vp3.com/vp3/about_vp3.shtml
sounds a lot more 'cooked' than Theora, too.

This (rather old) news item from 2002 was still interesting
http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/1370341
but, worryingly, was the most recent new item on
http://www.vp3.com/news/index.shtml

The mailing lists look to be active:
http://www.xiph.org/archives/theora/masterindex.html
http://www.xiph.org/archives/theora-dev/masterindex.html


-- 
 Chris Lilley                    mailto:chris@w3.org
 Chair, W3C SVG Working Group
 Member, W3C Technical Architecture Group

Received on Tuesday, 10 February 2004 12:48:55 UTC