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Google Discontinues On2 Flix Engine Video Encoder
trawg writes "Google have recently discontinued sales of the Flix Engine, the last remnants of the purchase of On2 that they were selling directly to users. On2, developers of the VP8 video codec that formed the basis of their new WebM video format, was bought by Google early in 2010. The Flix Engine was a comprehensive API for Windows and Linux that allowed integration of On2 encoders directly into any software product. While you can still buy some On2 products from another company, it's not clear what effect this will have on Google's ultimate video strategy."
However large/successful/influential a company is, one must always take into account whether or not the product in question is actually necessary. Codecs are a flooded market.
Sales must have been really unexciting for them to do that.
It would be totally unsurprising(and seems to be standard industry practice in general) to put any products that you've acquired but have no strategic in more or less on ice, cutting engineering down to bare minimum critical bug fixes and selling on a more or less "only if you ask" basis, rather than actually marketing.
Actually killing a product, though, when all you need to do to keep selling it is maintain some minimal licensing and payment processing system, is pretty dramatic.
Oh, wait, this isn't Oracle.
Queue the Google fanboi excuses for behavoir they'd excoriate other companies for.
VP6 was a terrible, terrible proprietary video format. Their encoder software was a pile of shit and absurdly overpriced: $1500 per year per core.
Borrowed a video camera from people in another department, but it's firewire output was borked. They then went to dump the tape for me. I got asked at least 4 times if ProRes was ok and said "no we aren't Mac, I edit in Vegas it reads native files, HDV format please." What did I get in the end? ProRes. Of course Vegas can't read that because, as you noted, Apple doesn't release it.
Uh, they bought On2 and open sourced its best codec. They didn't bought On2 just to kill it. They killed a small part of the On2 product line.
Oh, and I think you mean "cue", not "queue".
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Google sells very little, other than advertising. If they sold something for money, customers would insist on support. Almost the only thing Google sells directly to customers is the Google Search Appliance, which is available as a 1U or 4U rackmount server. The low-end version, the Google Mini, is sold with no support and a two-year replacement warranty. After two years, you're supposed to replace the entire unit. Google tried selling phones directly, and that lasted only for five months of 2010.
So it's not surprising that Google would drop a commercial software product. They don't sell any.
Uh, they bought On2 and open sourced its best codec. They didn't bought On2 just to kill it. They killed a small part of the On2 product line.
Oh, and I think you mean "cue", not "queue".
Well, to his credit he spelled "excoriate" correctly, even if he was otherwise off-base.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
it's not clear what effect this will have on Google's ultimate video strategy.
For that matter, Google's ultimate video strategy is unclear, quite possibly because they don't actually have one. Google is investing big money in lots of technologies, presumably hoping that one or more of them will become the "next big thing" when advertising is no longer the cash cow for them that it is now.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
It was just annoying. Plus I like to work on the native files since Vegas can because there's minimal generation loss. While ProRes isn't very compressed, ti is still compressed and every lossy decompression/compression cycle hits quality a little bit. Better to go straight from the camera formats to your final render. Does take more CPU time but then CPU isn't that expensive these days.
More like three little cries as I bitch slapped you around. Linking to your very own posts does NOT equal evidence or proof, otherwise I would simply link to the many instances I posted of me banging your mom and they would thus be "proof" that she owes me $500 for services rendered.
You know what you have to do trollie. Post your IP address as a first post on /. or show us the math proving your HOPES file can scale. Otherwise all you are doing is crying in the dark, hanging onto your your little woobie, hoping someone will listen to your pathetic theories based around tech nobody uses anymore. I find your pathetic little cries...rather amusing actually. Submit your proof trollie, we're waiting.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
The reasons behind buying On2 were obvious, it was to get out from under the thumb of MPEG-LA and it's constituents, many of whom are actively working against Google.
The payoff just from eliminating MPEG licensing would be huge for YouTube. Greater profit by lowering costs, raising revenue is not the only or necessarily best method of increasing profitability.
Apart from that their video strategy is clear, provide advertisement (which is revenue on planet Google) whilst not providing content.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Have you considered decaf? He did show proof in his statements he doesn't get malware, and in the quotes of others he put up from this website too in this quote
Ever since I've installed a host file (http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm) to redirect advertisers to my loopback, I haven't had any malware, spyware, or adware issues. I first started using the host file 5 years ago. - by TestedDoughnut (1324447) on Monday December 13, @12:18AM (#34532122)
FROM http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1907528&cid=34532122
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1916240&cid=34612834
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1916240&cid=34647708
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1922942&cid=34665368
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1924664&cid=34669668
With the discontinuation of the Flix engine, this marks the end of support for a Flash 8 codec. I imagine a few Wii owners that use Flash 8 to serve their media library will be largely apathetic.
I also doubt Nintendo will contract Opera to support WebM (VP8/vorbis), but one can hope.
Google does a pretty good job at figuring out where the interest is. FFMPEG is where Joe User is getting his free encoder, so good support in what's preferred can get your standards into the other browsers. FCP is sufficiently advanced and the iP[a-z] has enough market penetration that Apple doesn't have to care.
Alexander Peter Kowalski is a fraud and a malware author.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1924664&cid=34669668
quote:
First: Hairyfeet, exactly HOW MANY BAD SITES ARE OUT THERE, REALLY?
Answer the question above, ok?
I hate to tell you this, but, you can "quote figures" that are inapproximate estimates, all you like!
Nobody REALLY KNOWS how truly many "bad sites" are really out there now, yes, that includes your sources too - nobody has an "Exact Number" because it's a MOVING TARGET!
One I *TRY* to "keep up on" as best I can in fact... Especially on HOSTS files!
YOU? You also have to "consider your sources" too... see below. Later on that though...
See - each day, I add between 20-20,000 new ones (yes the range is THAT wide), but... I also have to PULL them too, & sometimes? That gets "up there" too!
(Problem is, again - NO ONE KNOWS HOW MANY BAD SITES THERE ARE OUT THERE, not really, period)
It's like keeping up with Comp. Sci. - it's always changing/growing, you can never, "know it all"... so, your #'s, or anyone elses??
PURE "GUESTIMOLOGY" (lol, there's a word!)
So - You can post late as you have here, to try to "bury it" so I won't see your reply... lol, no dice to that!
Now: Hairyfeet's 1.3 million malwares sites out there per his citation from SOFTPEDIA:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Number-of-Infected-Websites-Almost-Doubled-During-the-Second-Quarter-156591.shtml
(Which is, perhaps, NOT the "greatest/most accurate-in-the-know" site on security mind you? LOL: Where my wares are oddly, still put up for download no less, bonus, as I just checked)?
They are correct on 1 thing: I have noted it here also before - it's GROWING FASTER than it did years ago! The rest though? Guesstimates/Approximations!
I know that much from my hosts file population (running now, as we speak in fact).
However - using hairyfeet's sources & numbers? Well - My numbers are RIGHT, considering I block out 920,000 KNOWN ONES, as we speak, in my HOSTS file!
I constantly update it (probably 2-3 times a day or more)... doing it now, as I write this in fact!
Why? To stay accurate, & CURRENT vs. threats online, via a HOSTS file:
E.G. - Sites like hpHOSTS ( hosts-file.net/?s=Download ) update, HOURLY no less, & have removal lists too!
(As some sites DO clean up is why, or just drop)...
So, that said?
Again - I am JUST RIGHT, probably DAMN CLOSE TOO, with the number I block currently, & even PER HAIRYFEET'S POINTS in quoted estimated (note, estimated, no one is really sure how many bad sites there are) numbers of malware sites out there.
You can stop your trolling hairyfeet, because this puts you away, with ease, everytime (not even my OWN words, & I can produce more like it, easily enough, just ask):
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"Ever since I've installed a host file (http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm) to redirect advertisers to my loopback, I haven't had any malware, spyware, or adware issues. I first started using the host file 5 years ago." - by TestedDoughnut (1324447) on Monday December 13, @12:18AM (#34532122)
FROM http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1907528&cid=34532122
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Nuff said, as the saying goes - & I didn't even SAY it!
APK
P.S.=> hairyfeet, above all else - I know you're a tech, & MOST OF YOUR DAY, is probably removing malwares etc., but... if that got "taken away" by someone who found a VERY POWERFUL defense, per what's quoted above?
Well, then how will you continue making monies off of others' misfortunes, as you do?? apk