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X264 Project Announces Blu-ray Encoding Support

Posted by timothy on from the news-from-mid-spectrum dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The x264 project has announced the first free software encoder to be able to generate Blu-ray compliant video. In addition, the announcement comes with a torrent of an x264-encoded Blu-ray disc containing entirely free content, such as the Open Movie Project videos. While there are still no free software Blu-ray authoring tools, hopefully this will change now that video and audio are taken care of so that everyone will be able to make their own Blu-rays without expensive proprietary software. Additionally, it seems the Criterion Collection is a friend of free software, having sponsored the effort to confirm x264's compliance with the Blu-ray spec."

4 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. The first question that popped into my head by Daimanta · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Isn't x264 (heavily) patent encumbered? And does that mean that the makers(or distributers?) have to pay a licensing fee? I know that it makes me weary to roll this out in a setting other than my home computing enviroment.

    Anyone to easy my mind/confirm my suspicions?

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
    1. Re:The first question that popped into my head by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Forget about the patents. In order to publish any Blu-ray content, you have to encrypt it, which means buying a key from the AACS. Blu-ray players are not allowed to read unencrypted pressed BD discs (some will play unencrypted BD-Rs with a BD layout, though as I understand it that's increasingly rare.)

      This project is about as useful to the free software movement as a "free software" iPhone development kit.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    2. Re:The first question that popped into my head by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      But what if I'm an independent filmmaker and want to make my high-def movies available in Blu-ray and let people download them online? I've already done this with standard hi-def, making a DVD image available via bittorrent.

      I wonder if I'd need to pay any patent holders the vig? Because if I do, fuck it, I'm OK with my current formats.

      Anybody got any idea?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. BD9 by tepples · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you burn a Blu-ray Disc file system onto DVD+R DL, it's called BD9.