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Xiph Releases Ogg Theora Alpha-3
ArcRiley writes "For more than a year Xiph hackers have been working on Ogg Theora, an improved version of On2's VP3 video codec. Alpha-3 includes several bitstream changes, VP3 to Theora "upgrade" utilities, and is now supported by Xine, MPlayer, and Real's Helix Player. We're nearing Beta-1 where the format will be frozen, fully documented, and it'll be ready for everyday use."
I'm happy to announce at long last the release of theora alpha 3. This incorporates all the bitstream changes we wanted to make both for future encoder improvements and to permit lossless transcode of VP3 content. This is an important milestone for us on the road to a stable release.
As this is an alpha release we are again providing sources only. See the files section of downloads. This version requires libogg 1.1 or later and libvorbis 1.0.1 or later.
Also new in this release are a set of experimental tools in the win32 directory contributed by Mauricio Piacentini. This includes a transcoding tool for avi-encapsulated vp3 video which also works on linux.
We hope to not make any further incompatible bitstream changes, but this is still alpha code. Don't use this for content you're not ready to re-encode!
Thanks to everyone who contributed!
I notice that the CBC's Quirks and Quarks radio show supports Ogg. Figures that a science program would be clued-in on latest developments. Hopefully the rest of the CBC will catch up--they still only offer the Big Ugly Three (and sometimes only Real).
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Xiph is a group (I believe European or something to get the odd-to-my-USian-ear names) that puts out codecs.
Ogg is a wrapper format that they put out. It serves much the same purpose as QuickTime, AVI, or ASF does. One wraps it around an encoded stream of audio or data. Currently, Ogg is mostly commonly used to contain audio data encoded with the Vorbis codec, which is notable for tending to sound better than MP3, being patent-free and having a completely free implementation for anyone to use.
Theora is a video codec also put out by Xiph. It is based on an older, originally proprietary video codec that was donated to the Xiph project. I'm not sure how it measures up to existing video codecs.
Alpha-3 is, I think, pretty self-explanatory to a developer. It's an alpha release, so the developers are leaving open the possibility that they will make large changes (unlike beta software, where the software should be considered ready, and only lacks feedback from a broad base of people). It is the third alpha release.
Oh, yes. I love the Far Side strip about Ginger. Remember, though, that saying "awk", "sed", or "grep", which sound quite reasonable to people on Slashdot, sounds absolutely bizarre to most folks.
May we never see th
My Rio Karma works just fine with Ogg. In fact, all I have on the thing is Ogg.
It works incredibly well, and with 20gigs for $250 shipped, and a Java-based interface program (which runs on FreeBSD and Linux), I'm very happy with it.
You are right that the 'brand names' don't support these formats very well. This is why you should probably look past the brand names and check out the little guys...
Although the code of Xvid of xvid is GPL, XviD is still an ISO MPEG-4 compliant video codec. That means that the patent holders of MPEG-4 can still demand a fee for its use.
Theora doesn't have such limitations.
Xvid is Free Software, but it's an implementation of MPEG4, which is patent-encumbered. It's the same reason that Ogg Vorbis is seen as the champion of free music, although there are GPL MP3 encoders.
These things are not implemented yet, and will probobally not be useable on earlier Beta releases either, but as of Beta-1 the bitstream will not change in future-compatable ways. That is, while some optimisation fields won't be supported yet, no new fields will be added. Future players will always be able to play media encoded by the Beta releases. The same is not true for movies encoded with the Alpha libraries, so Beta-1 is really the first point where it should be used for distributed movies.
The 1.0 release will include support for atleast decoding these optional fields, it'll likely use them all too for encoding, and should be considerably higher quality than the VP3.2 codec from which it started with. It'll always, however, be able to upgrade VP3.2 media to Theora and, again, always be able to play media encoded with the Beta releases.
Rob Lanphier
Developer Support Manager
RealNetworks
What you describe is Trademark law, which is probably the sanest branch of north american IP at this point. You cannot trademark common words or phrases (modulo certain exceptions) so an effort is generally made to prevent brand names from becoming same by prosecuting uses of the trademark that don't refer specifically to the actual product.
Copyrights belong to the author (or sponsor) automatically and can only be given up voluntarily or lost when the rights period expires, which is now some significant time after the author dies.
Patents are granted on a first come, first served basis to whoever applies for one and provides a monopoly on the implementation of a particular method for a fixed term.
Neither copyright nor patent rights are contingent on enforcement the way trademarks are. Holders of these two rights can and do choose which infringements to pursue.
This is the problem with MPEG-4. We can avoid the copyright issue by writing an open source version from scratch, since the standard is at least published. We don't have to call it MPEG-4 so there are no trademark issues, although while the MPEG logo is trademarked in the US, one can refer to the specification because that itself is not a trademark and because there is no attempt at confusion.
But there is no way around patents because they grant a monopoly on implementation rights. Just because you wrote your own doesn't mean you don't have to buy a license, or that you won't be forced to buy one sometime in the next 20 years. If you live in a jurisdiction that doesn't enforce patents, you're fine for now. If you just want to trade movies underground, you're probably fine because there's safety in numbers. But if you're like me, and want digital media to be as easy and ubiquitous as webpages; something anyone can do, something you don't need permission for, you need a something that's Free as in Freedom and Free as in Beer. Something like Theora.