Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

VP3.com: Future VP3 Releases To Be LGPL

Posted by timothy on from the like-a-carrot-on-a-stick dept.

sudog writes: "According to this vorbis-dev posting and The VP3 Homepage VP3 (QT5-type movie compression scheme) is now under the LGPL! What's not clear is whether they intend to offer it guaranteed royalty and patent free to the community. They're actively looking for help, too. Does this mean that we no longer need the OGG-Tarkin to save us from our movie-less, video-app-less emulating?" Of course, they don't say starting when, exactly.

7 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. QT is a metaformat.. by snillfisk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    After all, QT is a metaformat .. which isnt actually doing any compression or anything, but rather specifying which codecs to use. the biggest problem with getting an open source version that handles all QT-files nicely, is the patents and licensing on central codecs (especially the Sorenson Video codec).. more info can be found at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/specifications.html .

    --
    mats
    One man's ceiling is another man's floor.
  2. I'd never trust anyone except Ogg by raahul_da_man · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Another video codec sounds good, but after the nasty DivX ;) experience, I don't trust people who make their codecs open source, and then return to being proprietary.

    LGPL is a bastard license at best. GPL or nothing is the only way to go.

  3. What's with XviD? by nutshell42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.xvid.org

    XviD is based on the old OpenDivX-Codec but afaik doesn't use any of its code any longer and is completely GPled.

    the codec improves at an amazing speed and already beats the shit out of VP3:
    http://www.doom9.org/codecs.htm

    --
    Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
  4. Excellent move by AirLace · · Score: 4, Interesting
    VP3 is a really powerful codec. It's like a next-generation DivX -- similarly to DivX the only thing holding back from widespread use were its worrying licensing terms. Now that it's free I'm looking forward to seeing this adopted fully by the community.

    This means that streaming video embedded in webpages for the Linux / Free Software clan is now a reality, but perhaps more importantly, VP3 makes it possible to eliminate adware/spyware like RealVideo and the equally obnoxious and platform-specific Windows Media. Cheers for all the great work, On2 Technologies! This is, in my opinion, one of the most important things to happen on the open source scene for quite some time.

  5. ogg tarkin is somewhat dead. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    i took a look at how they do things and it doesnt look good.

    3d wavelets are useless without motion compensation, they have no motion compensation yet.
    even with motion compensation they are gonna have a hard time stitching it together so no artifacts are left over.

    tarkin is around since 2000, all they have is some obscure 3d wavelet transform and a huffman backend that leads to good quality at 800kbyte/sec but.. no.. something striped moves by one pixel and everything breaks. yes, its a research codec but comeon.. they have been talking on the mailing list of adapting several other codecs (like vp3) and go on and on over different motion compensation aproaches like meshes and stuff without writing any test code.
    so.. as long as no one comes by and drop them a pretty done codec tarkin wont get done.
    well ok.. its better then indeo 5 in some cases though.
    now that vp3 is lgpld theyll probably just write an ogg header and its done.

    1. Re:ogg tarkin is somewhat dead. by Skuto · · Score: 2, Interesting

      >Question is, will it matter by then? I guess only
      >time will tell.

      Of course. People will still be encoding video in 3 years. Tarkin technology is angled more towards future development than most formats nowadays which are all more or less based on the level of technology MPEG4 is based on. That doesn't mean it's the last word.

      For example, 3 years ago we had MP3. That didn't cause Vorbis 'not to matter'. It is better technology. It is free.

      --
      GCP

  6. Next generation is NOT under LGPL/GPL. by Svartalf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They're selling the VP4 codec and have a VP5 that's in testing right now. They plan on selling that- if they get an open sourced version of the prior generation out there that can be supported by their newer codecs, that's a win for most people (So long as they provide the decoder for the latest format for free, that is... :-) I'll be posing that question to them on the list. It's great and all, but unless we've got decoders for VP4 and VP5, it's not as good as it could be.

    --
    I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas