OSTA Announces MultiPhoto/Video Specification

krazyninja writes "The Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA), and the International Imaging Industry Association (I3A), have announced the release of v1.0 MultiPhoto/Video specs. This specifies a standard framework for storing and managing digital image content on CDs/DVDs. Companies such as HP and Roxio are involved in this development. Note that there is a similar spec for audio called MultiAudio, also from OSTA."

Comments

Sorry, but

[Slashdotess]

MPEG is severly dated, in my opinion, when we have stuff that can produce great quality at low bitrates. And, hell, this is an upstart isn't it? What kind've of open mind would say that we shouldn't even try and look into/make? another codec and blindly follow whatever preconcieved notions we have.

Re:Sorry, but

[C_To]

Perhaps MPEG-1 and even 2 is outdated, however, with that in mind, MPEG-2 is still being used exclusively in broadcasting and consumer distribution. If it's good enough to hit your television set (via Digital Cable or dish), and good enough for ENG use (a fair bit of digital stations transmit their data to a content provider using MPEG-2 based video), its most likely sufficent for consumer and even pro-sumer use. Dated technologies may be old, but they still provide simplicity and are still commonly used despite what Intel and Microsoft are boasting today. Not to mention, each newer MPEG technology (2 vs 4) provides a leap in a certain market area to provide sufficent standards for users without requiring the latest build of Windows Media Player.

I've been thinking about a scrapbook standard..

[Anonymous Coward]

something needs to be..

My mother, gave my sister, the family foto album.. now I have it, and I'm in the process of digitizing it...

all of my kids, will have copies (albeit digital) and with video clips, and with audio snippets... and their children (presumably) will, and so on.. how about a standard, that saves these scrapbooks, so they can be merged easily..

Fictionalized example- I use kodaks 'scraps' program, and give my son a 500 gig optical disk with everything.. he meets and marries in due time a woman who's family chose to use polaroids 'memories' they buy one or the other, and just 'merge' the memories.. they can hand each child a copy issued custom to them.. with added material.. (lables for photos now say great grandparent in stead of grandparent, et'cetera..)

of course, it has to be open format, something that allows new technologies to add gracefully (a hologram or other 3-d memory)

Hmmm... what kind of DRM nasties are in this?

[Anonymous Coward]

What kind of DRM nasties are in this? And what are the odds that this new format will run only on CD/DVD players powered by Windows Media and Windows XP for Home Appliances Edition? They will copy protect your own photos for you, just in case you might happen to take a picture of a copy protected work somewhere. You wont be sending those photos off to your brother or sister unless you pay your monthly $19.95 Multiphoto Subscriber Plus+ license (but it works with broadband and AOL!).

I smell trouble. I smell lots of trouble. Whenever companies like HP and Roxio get involved, I am concerned for the well being of embedded, appliance-like devices.

Distopian future? Absolutely. Soon we wont be able to print our own photos without a watermark of the printers manufacturer. Free advertising! And it will be against DMCA to remove the watermarks! What a joyus future indeed!

Speaking finnish as mothertongue may be hazardous.

[IncarnationTwo]

OSTA! == Buy!

Scary when you think about it.

Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not just use UDF packet-written CDs? What advantage does this new, properietary, probably DRMed format have over good ol' UDF with a load of .jpeg and .mpeg files?

P.S. I wish Linux UDF-write support worked - then I could start using CDs as giant floppies...

Its just meta data folks...

[CharlieO]

Seriously, I've read most of the links now on the OSTA site, and I can't see anything that looks like DRM.

Repeatedly all I can find is that this is hardware/OS independant, and that non 'MPV-aware' software/hardware will still play the media because its just an extension system, that it is royalty-free...

So what is this - well this is my interpretation:

This is a index and archiving approach, using XML as a metadata format to support the approach.

Currently on a CD/DVD you have the ISO9660 filesystem that tells the firmware/software the bare minimum to access the data.

MPV looks like it takes this a step further, similar to what Kodak did with the PhotoCD standard, so that aware applications can get access to a fast loading and more descriprive index of the media on the disk.

So its an evolution of the filesystem that supports media content rather than raw data files.

I don't see that it mandates a particular underlying file system, or file format, or DRM, or brand of hardware.

Its just a standard to provide and index so that 'MPV aware' software/hardware can understand the media better and do more with it. If you're not MPV aware - then you just get the data in the filesystem like you do today.

Now if you've ever tried to use something like Uleads Photo Explorer to find the image you want off your CD-R archive and waited whilst the drive thrashed through the whole 700MB to generate thumbnails, or tried to use WinOnCD to generate CD PhotoAlbums by a neat use of the VCD standards - then you will know that this is possible, but not the easiest it should be.

How much nicer would it be just to dump your images onto media with some notes and categories, and for it to just work, in your PC, on your folks DVD player, in your mates IMac, heck even your local tame guru's *NIX boxen?

And I'm a lot happier seeing this done by an organisation with a broad range of interests, software, hardware, industry, consumers etc. I don't want OS forcing this on me with thier own agenda - M$ or *NIX - I don't want Media Industry influenced hardware companies like Sony utting thier own spin on it.

If this is to succeed then it needs contributions from a wide range of sources, that will keep it balanced and open. Look at how common HTML has become under the care of the W3C - and it still by and large resists customisation and bending towards specific views because so many diverse interests are part of the process.

Lets not view every technology announcement as a modern day 'REDs under the BED'('DRM under the HOOD??') paranoia - yes lets keep our eyes out, and when we are worried DO SOMETHING rather than rant. But lets not let the actions of RIAA/Fritz/M$/MPAA et al colour our views of every new announcement - that way they win. Lets remember that spirit of 'gosh wow' that drove the early internet and gave us /.

I'm prepared to be wrong, but to paraphrase 'To a hammer every problem is a nail' lets not end up as 'To the slashdot community every announcement has hidden DRM'

metadata not filesystem

[rillian]

From a quick look at the spec, this is a metadata format, not a filesystem. It's intended for more than CD/DVD media as well, notably flash filesystems, which are different of technical necessity.

It seems to be mostly oriented toward labelling, describing and presenting collections of images. For what a first look is worth it doesn't necessarily suck, either. They mention dublin core metadata.

A nice add on to comments in the jpeg header, anyway.