SMPTE Adoption Of WMV9 Hits Some Snags

SysKoll writes "EETimes is running an interesting story about the future of the video codecs for HD DVDs. The Redmond Beast convinced both the Blu-ray Disc Association and the DVD Forum to adopt its WMV9 video codec over MPEG4 for the upcoming VC-1 standard that is mandated for high-definition video devices. That was a huge coup for MS. Now it turns out that Microsoft cheated and lied: its code is not as good as MPEG 4, the WMV9 reference implementation is not available, and the WMV9 test suite does not exercise all the features. The SMPTE might drop WMV9 after all. Apparently, a highly technical standard body is harder to snowjob than the usual clueless consumers."

Comments

What?!

[Anonymous Coward]

I am shocked. Shocked and dismayed. Microsoft lied? My world is falling apart.

Team Microsoft, fuck yeah!

Re:What?!

[Anonymous Coward]

I was once in a large meeting where the company I was working for was expressing concerns about an agreement they had entered into with Microsoft. One, very wise, ex IBMer who had battle scars from OS/2 told the stunned room:

"Doing a deal with Microsoft is like going into Mike Tyson's bedroom. You're going to get fucked and you're not going to like it".

It was topical at the time ...

Pseudo Letter to Microsoft...

[Eberlin]

Finally finished and somewhat appropriate to post it here. Again, my apologies to the ones who wrote the original work...and no need to be upset y'all, it's supposed to be funny.

(chorus sung by DiiDdo of band Yank'n Grope)
My fee's all gone, I'm wondering why
I sold my soul at all --
The morning mail locked up my Windows,
They all call me a troll.
Even if they don't, everything I say
Gets all hackers' eyes to roll --
Still I tell me that it's not so bad,
It's not so bad...

Dear Bill, I wrote but you still ain't respondin'
I left e-mail, my URL, and my home IP at the bottom
I sent two bug reports last autumn -- you must not a got 'em
There probably was a problem with hotmail or somethin
Sometimes the packets take the scenic route when you route them
but anyhoo, fsck it, what's been up? Man, how's Ballmer?
Is he still a dancin' foo, screamin' "developer?"
If I have a daughter, guess what I'ma call her --
I'ma name her Clippy.
I read about your XP SP2, I'm sorry.
I had a friend bork his box over some bitchy driver problem
I know you probably hear this everyday but I'm your biggest fan.
I even got Software Assurance that the zealots called a scam.
I got a room will all your certificates and manuals, man.
I like the stuff you did with Java, too, that stuff was phat!
Anyways, I hope you get this, man. Hit me back
just to chat, truly yours, your biggest fan
This is Dan.

Dear Bill, you still ain't ack-ed my note. I hope you have a chance.
I ain't mad -- I just think it's fscked up when the shizznit hit the fan.
If you didn't want to fix the bugs through Trustworthy Computing
you didn't have to, but you coulda posted a work-around for Matthew
That's my kid bro, man, he's only eight years old
Been a good boy, rebooted as he was told by you
for years and you just said "No."
That's pretty crappy, man, his drive was going idle.
He wanted to be just like you, man! Now he gets more porn than I do!
I ain't that mad, though, I just don't like bein lied to.
Remember when we met in Vegas? I said that I'd write you
And that I've always gots your back. See, man, patching is ok, in a way.
I wouldn't have bothered either
But my mom's machine got hosed and she's not a control-alt-deleter.
I can't relate when people say you're doing wrong
So when I have a crappy day, I flame away and bring it on
'cause I don't really know shit else and get confused on what to press
I even got wit blizzard and got Warcraft Battlechest
Sometimes I get a troll to axe a seal to watch it bleed
It's like adrenaline, that is until the game locks up on me.
And when you rolled right over Real, man, I respect you cause you did it.
The linux folks are jealous -- their uptime is 24/7
but they don't know you like I do, Bill, no one does
they don't know what it's like for systems like ours booting up
You gotta write me, man. I'll be the biggest fan you'll ever lose.
Sincerely yours, Dan -- P.S.
I'm glad you beat up OS/2

Dear Mister-I'm-Too-Good-To-Fix-Or-Patch-My-Bugs,
this 'll be the last e-mail I ever send your ass
It's been so long and Word's still bork -- I don't deserve it?
I gotta upgrade to write letters?
I almost switched down to Wordperfect!
So this is my ogg file I'm sending you, I hope you hear it.
I'm running firefox on the information superhighway
Hey Bill, I clicked on Bonzi Buddy, will it install in my drive?
You know that song by Shawn Colvin, it's called "Sunny Came Home"
about that girl who came home with a box of tools and said that
it's time for a few small repairs -- she came home with a vengeance?
That's kinda how it is, I was one "rescue disk" from switching
Now it's too late -- I'm with a million penguins now and happy
and all I wanted was a lousy ack or a call
I hope you know I trashed ALL of your cd's from my drawer.
I loved XP and IE together, think about it --
It's ruined somehow, I hope you can'

Well it's surprising.

[marcello_dl]

A company the size of MS that cannot write a decent test suite. Incompetence or the need to keep the proposed standard as obscure as possible to stifle competition... or both?

Hmm

[__aavhli5779]

What disturbs me is that a 'standards body' would've considered a completely closed, proprietary codec anyway. Patent-encumbered is one thing. Black-box is another. What were they thinking?

Re:Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

What were they thinking?

That's the problem, they weren't thinking.

You asked why a ".. 'standards body' would consider a completely closed, proprietary codec ...?" The answer is in the article:

"Ironically, a Microsoft executive chaired the H.264 joint video team and successfully guided the group to the H.264 spec ratified at ITU-T in May 2003. Nevertheless, Microsoft has been promoting WMV9 as a proven codec that strikes a better balance between compression efficiency and computational efficiency than H.264."

and

" But now that the WMV9-based VC-1 has been put to the test in the arduous SMPTE standardization process, VC-1 is perceived as behind in quality and behind in licensing terms, compared to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, one source said. "

Catch that? Microsoft railroaded the committee, while lying about WMV9's capabilities. Inspite of that behavior some committee members continue to be Microsoft sock puppets:

"In short, industry players that have embraced VC-1 fear they may have to go back to Microsoft and pony up fees for a WMVx license in the future. MPEG's Koenen dismissed such a possibility. "Microsoft knows better than that," he said. "

Ya, right. As PT Barnum said, "you can fool some of the people all of the time", an obvious reference to the SMPTE.

Surprising?

[FiReaNGeL]

Microsoft used shark-style tactics using his monopolistic power to get what it wanted and crush opposition... film at 11. Is this even news?

And if you RTFA, you'll see that "On the assumption that WMV9 was destined to become an industry standard, Microsoft convinced both the Blu-ray Disc Association and the DVD Forum to include it as a mandatory video compression format (along with MPEG-2 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC) for next-generation high-definition DVD formats. Now, there is speculation that delays or licensing problems for VC-1 could prompt either -- or both -- of the DVD industry groups to simply delete the Microsoft technology from their specifications."

So it's not like WMV9 was the only codec incorporated in the standard anyway. Microsoft overpromised it seems, at least on the feature set. But cheated and lied?

Re:Surprising?

[geg81]

Microsoft used shark-style tactics using his monopolistic power to get what it wanted and crush opposition... film at 11. Is this even news?

No, that's not news. What's news is that an important industry standards body noticed in time and is trying to prevent it.

Microsoft overpromised it seems, at least on the feature set. But cheated and lied?

I think if you "overpromise" in order to gain business advantages worth billions of dollars, that counts as "cheated and lied". In fact, it might count as "fraud".

Maybe we have gotten a little too jaded in this industry, but this kind of behavior should not be acceptable.

Re:Open disk

[pchan-]

sure it's an open standard. anyone can buy the implementation specifications, and get the reference code for a marginal fee. but it uses patented methods, so even if you make your own implementation, you still have to pay the MPEG licensing authority (MPEG-LA) on their terms.

Microsoft vs. Apple: Two Warring Views of Media

[Nova Express]

This is rather emblamatic of the differences between the way Apple and Microsoft approach any technical problem.

Apple asks: "How can we make the best product possible for the customer and still make money at it?"

Microsoft asks: "How can we use this to reinforce our monopoly and still get end-users to swallow it?"

All Microsoft's DRM and Codec schemes have seemed to design to "embrace and extend" to further their Windows monopoly. Apple's have been designed to be the best they possibly can, with just enough DRM to satisfy their media partners. It's a big difference, and it shows up in everything they do.