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OSTA Announces MultiPhoto/Video Specification

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the pics-on-a-disc dept.

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."

2 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. I've been thinking about a scrapbook standard.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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)

  2. Its just meta data folks... by CharlieO · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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'