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Xiph Releases Ogg Theora Alpha-3

Posted by Hemos on from the frozen-for-usage dept.

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."

7 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Release Notes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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!

  2. DivX problems by ArcRiley · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Patents. DivX is just a series of alpha-releases for MPEG-4 and is covered by the same set of patents (from dozens of different companies). They're only being nice about DivX until MPEG-4 comes out, then they're going to "crack down".

    Remember when MP3 was gaining popularity, Frauhofer just let everyone do whatever they wanted with players, encoders, etc... but once they realised they had something worth charging for they cracked down and their lawyers started sending everyone ceise and desist orders.

    Ogg Theora is not encumbered by patents. It is, and will always be, royalty-free. To my knowledge it is the first video codec that can be implemented in truly Free Software.

  3. Re:DivX popularity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One word - games.

    Need an animated intro or cutscene in a PC game? The options are kind of limited. You can license DivX or Bink, or rely on whatever codecs come as standard with Windows, but the options are either expensive, low-quality or problematic.

    I was commenting on Ogg Vorbis in games a few minutes ago, and was wondering how the Xiph people were getting on with Ogg Theora. I clicked to go to the Slashdot front page, and behold!

    I reckon I can sense the future, and I don't even have a Slashdot subscription. ;-]

  4. Re:Another standard that probably won't get embrac by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  5. Theora for streaming by ArcRiley · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It's ironic to think of Theora as a "Real-killer", while it does compete on the same field as Real's proprietary video streaming codecs, Real is adopting Theora for the video format in their Helix suite (and throwing money at Xiph to help get Theora out faster).

    I've seen Theora be streamed with Icecast (check out the last Ogg Traffic), I've seen decent quality Theora video at 80kbps (320x240@30 even), and I've seen how well it works in an Ogg container, vs Quicktime/AVI which (unlike Ogg) were not designed for streaming.

    But don't take my word for it, try it out for yourself! That's one of the reasons the Alpha releases are available to the general public. See what it can do, and prehaps, drop us a donation through Paypal or Affero to help the Theora hackers spend more time hacking.

  6. Whatever happened to Tarkin? by cozziewozzie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Slashdot used to report on Ogg Tarkin (next-generation, wavelet-based video codec) a lot in the past, but since Theora showed up as a stop-gap solution, nobody's mentioning Tarkin. Is this project still alive?

    1. Re:Whatever happened to Tarkin? by hsoom · · Score: 5, Informative
      From the Theora FAQ:
      Q: What about Tarkin?

      A: Tarkin is essentially a proof-of-concept wavelet-based codec. Its experimental nature means it will not be ready for general use for some time. VP3 is a high-quality codec that can meet today's video needs now, so Xiph.org will be focusing its efforts on Theora for the near future.