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ffmpeg: Free Software's WMA decoder

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the way-to-go-guys dept.

mmu_man writes "This morning, after the usual spams, I got this from the ffmpeg-devel mailing list: Here it is, something we waited for long. Now we have a FreeSoftware (LGPL) WMA (Windows Media Audio) decoder. WMA is the highly proprietary audio codec M$ is pushing along with its user-locking tools like DRM. this will free us from the ugly DLL hacks required to play DivX until now. Note there isn't any encoder yet, but who would like to encode into WMA while we have better and more open solutions? With this new codec, ffmpeg really proves itself as the most complete audio/video grabbing, convertion and streaming solution, for Linux, but also FreeBSD, Windows and even BeOS. Note ffmpeg codecs are used in a lot of other FreeSoftware projects, like mplayer."

7 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. Is this REALLY a good thing? by GnomeKing · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sure, I'm all in favour of being able to play more movies on my linux system - even though I'm unlikely to own (m)any wmv movies...

    But my question is how legal is this?

    What is to stop MS attacking open source in the same way as RIAA attacked - and closed - napster?

    yes, yes, one is a concept, the other is a program - but RIAA wants to make ANY file sharing program which is similar to napster illegal, and their certainly making progress toward that goal...

    If a percentage of open source developers ignore the law - such as a percentage of napster users did - whats going to happen in the future?

  2. Quality "Enhancements" by __Maad__ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I remember someone mentioning in an earier discussion that the WMA encoder fooled many people into thinking their encoded audio sounded "better" by applying a compressor/dynamics (6:1 ratio was it?), leaving the dynamic range 'squished' and making music sound louder (which isn't really "better"). Can anybody confirm this?

    If an open version of a WMA encoder is released, it would be interesting to see how it would perform versus the MS encoder in this respect.

    --
    Maciek

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    -- Maciek
  3. Liability? by m0i · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can this source code be subjected to DMCA?
    Can its author be sued for reverse engineering?
    Is it planned that DRM features will be added at some point, or the above applies..

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  4. Isn't the WMA format patented? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm sure I remember a /. article from someone who was closed down by Microsoft (read: sent threatening letters) for attempting to produce a WMA decoder. The argument then was that the WMA format was covered by various patents.

    What's to stop the same thing happening to this one?

  5. Patent problems with this? by FattMattP · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Are they sure that this isn't covered by a patent? I remember almost two years ago that VirtualDub had to remove support for ASF files because Microsoft had a patent on some part of it. The VirtualDub guys just removed support rather than fight MS. I hope this doesn't turn out to be the same situation.

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  6. Re:How long before... by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "MS decide this is illegal and start suing? I mean, clearly there's the whole DMCA thing. Does this decoder ignore MS's DRM system? I would have read the article, but I don't speak C...
    "

    Anybody remember when VirtualDub could work on .ASF files...?

    Here is a short blurb talking about it.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  7. Re:How long before... by FreeUser · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How long before... ...MS decide this is illegal and start suing?

    How about sometime after Microsoft actually uses a lawsuit as a weapon? Microsoft has zero history of suing people who write lookalikes of their software (Samba, WINE, That NT-workalike project, etc).

    Well, that is true only to a point. In fairness to Microsoft, they haven't filed any such lawsuits, but they have used the threat of lawsuits on more than one occasion, and while they haven't dealt with look-and-feel per se, they have dealt with other equally inane things, like file format compatability. Certainly Microsoft has reserved the option to (mis)use lawsuits strategicly against Free Software in the internal Halloween documents leaked a few years ago.

    Apparently, you're thinking of Apple who really is truly evil when it comes to suing people.

    Both are evil, in different ways. However, I believe you are correct in pointing out that Apple is the one which went beyond mere intimidation, to actually filing (and losing) lawsuits based upon mimicknig look-and-feel.

    Which is why, much as I like some of Apple's products (and will almost certainly make Apple my next laptop), I am also at pains to point out that anyone switching from Windows to Apple is simply trading one Master for another, and who is to say that the kinder Master today will be the kinder Master next year?

    Of course, with Palladium on the horizon, we may well find ourselves in the extraordinarilly ironic situation where we need to buy a non-Intel, non-AMD (e.g. Apple PowerPC) system just to be able to dual-boot into Linux. I suspect instead most of the Asian hardware companies will ship with two BIOSes, so that a simple jumper or firmware setting can completely eliminate Palladium, but who can ever be certain in these unusual times?

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