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Theora Codec Ported to Java

Posted by michael on from the netflicks dept.

fons writes "These guys have ported the Theora codec to Java. This means that ANY Java-capable browser can now be used to watch video streams on the net (clients don't have to download a player!). You can watch a demo showing some boring guys sitting in the office. At least the music is ok :) On their site you can find a link to an interesting interview with the boss, and it looks like more cool stuff is coming soon."

11 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. Strategy... by bogaboga · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The strategy will be to have DELL, IBM, HP and others install that java onto all desktops they sell. Then "all" mankind will be able to watch those videos. I should mention that I do not know what agreements M$ has with OEMs in relation to additions/subtractions to Windows. With that done, M$ will feel kicked in the stomach ouch...!! And the streams work. Very soon they will be slashdotted.

    BTW, I did not realize that mine was the usual FP!!

    Cb..

  2. Seriously works! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For some reason it seems to load faster than realplayer, quicktime or windows media player.

    I am using Java 5 RC which for me GUI program feel faster than .Net apps like RSS Bandit! Its actually a real option for anyone wanting to stream video.

    Also, please note I do feel dirty calling it Java 5...

    And nice work putting a video stream on the front page! Thats nice and considerate /.

    1. Re:Seriously works! by Lisandro · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My first thought exactly. "Holy shit, it looks better and loads faster than a Realplayer stream!". This is on my work's terminal (a PIII 800mhz with 512mb) on Opera 7, and the stream is flawless.

      Makes you notice how far Java has came peformance-wise lately. Ah, and kudos to the programmers. This is great work.

  3. Its not futile! by Ars-Fartsica · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Ogg Vorbis hasn't taken over the world, but people are using it and some vendors are supporting it. Theora will likely never slay Quicktime et al but that doens't mean a meaningful community of users can't emerge.

    Don't discount the business value of these open formats - for a hardware or tools vendor it is one less license to pay.

  4. clients still have to download a player by Speare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Clients still have to download the player, it's just that the player is now in a form which is downloaded with less effort.

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
    1. Re:clients still have to download a player by Tobias+Luetke · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, Huge difference, The player runs in a sandbox. That means everyone can be 100% certain that it won't install spyware of any sorts in the system.

      This is very very good.

  5. Looks great and loads quick by spludge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just tried it in both Firefox and IE. It looks great (sounds good too) and it loads really quickly! I hope sites start switching to this rather than using real media or WMV streams for windows media player.

  6. Re:Wondering why this hasn't been done previously by gstamp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm getting about 15% processor utilization on my P4 2.4Ghz. Loads really quickly and the video quality seems pretty good.

    I'd bet that a lot of the CPU utilization comes from the fact that it wouldn't be using direct draw like most players would rather than any codec issues.

    Wonder if jdk 1.5 would make a difference in CPU.

  7. Re:Slashdotters will agree... by mcrbids · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I do not agree. Having a java codec for browsers may as well be having no codec at all. Reasoning:

    1) The only users that allow their browser to run java are those that either don't know how to disable it, or don't know what it is....<SNIP>
    And I would put you squarely into the LATTER category. Or, were you not aware of what a JVM "sandbox" is?
    2. Java is slow and gobbles up resources....
    So is Windows. So is KDE. So is perl, PHP, Ruby, GLibc, and about a zillion others. Perhaps you should read up on the realities of so-called "BLOAT"?

    The fact is that faster computers have not really resulted in us running the same programs faster. It's resulted in us running bigger, fancier programs at the same speed we always have.

    It took about 3 minutes for my 20 Mhz 286 to boot up. It takes about that long for my 2 Ghz Athlon to do the same.

    What's the difference? Go on back and USE that 80286 AT for a while, and tell me what that software "bloat" really got you...
    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
  8. Re:Slashdotters will agree... by mabinogi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ok, so where are the JVM exploits?

    Javascript is NOT java, so saying "Javascript is vulnerable, so Java must be" is pointless.

    I'm not necesarily saying that java isn't a security hole, I'm just asking that if you're making the claim, then make sure the evidence you provide is relevant.

    as for 2, what you said there applies to all media players.
    WMP, Quick Time, Real One, they all eat memory and processor cycles.
    Have you actually tried it? I don't think that you can claim that it will bog down the machine and be worthless until you try it yourself.
    I haven't tried it either, so I can't say that you're wrong, but there is nothing in your post that gives any real evidence as to why this codec is worthless. Speculation is not evidence.

    --
    Advanced users are users too!
  9. Re:Hey These guys just invented the player we crea by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Lots of people have built Java applet video players. Fluendo isn't claiming to be the first; they're claiming to have the first Theora Java player.