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Netflix Releases 'Meridian' Test Footage To All Including Competitors, Open Sources Some Tools (variety.com)
Netflix has released 'Meridian' to not just all its 83 million subscribers, but to everyone. The company produced the title as test footage to evaluate anything from the performance of video codecs to the way Netflix streams look like on 4K TVs. But the company decided to make it to open to all -- be it hardware manufacturers, codec developers, or even competitors like Amazon and Hulu. From a report on Variety:Netflix is using a Creative Commons license for the release of "Meridian," which is new for an industry that isn't used to sharing a lot of resources. "They are in the business of exploiting content, not of giving it away," Chris Fetner, the company's director for content partner operations said. But for Netflix, it's just par of the course. Thanks to its Silicon Valley DNA, Netflix has long collaborated with other companies on cloud computing-focused open source projects. Now, it wants to nudge Hollywood to do the same -- and "Meridian" is only the beginning. This week, Netflix is also open-sourcing a set of tools tackling a common problem for studios and video services.
How long before Sony issues a DMCA takedown on it?
A media file of 89GB gets a bit too much to casually test conversions myself.
I do wonder how large the files will be when ripping in various codecs. With some DVD's the resulting x264 and xvid conversions didn't differ much in size (with equal quality), probably because of grain and smoke.
home
This is an appreciated move, that will benefit everyone in the end.
Other Co-Dec developers will improve their work on the sample, and content providers will benefit from the resulting improved quality and/or spared bandwidth.
And of course, at the end of the chain, consumers will enjoy the improvements.
Too bad they were so efficient with their VPN ban.
Irrelevant news and morons using moderation to mod down what they disagree on. 2018 resolution: so long.
Maybe.
Alphabet can't put it on youtube, as it's a commercial service. A person can put it on YouTube, as long as they aren't participating in the revenue sharing, and a DMCA notice would have to be respected.
NC clause is hardly given away though.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
I'm actually alright with that for something that is intended to be used as a reference point to test codecs and distribution.
Though, I suppose arguably re encoding it could be seen as violating ND.
Considering the summary implies that Hulu, etc. can use it as a demo of the quality of their streams, but the NC definitely prohibits that (promotional demo for a for profit service is definitely commercial use), the summary is just stupid.
The ND may or may not apply to reducing the size by encoding (it could either be fair use, or alteration, depending on interpretation), in the context it's being presented, NC is definitely more limiting.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
In a global media business, Hollywood is often producing dozens of versions for each movie. Not only do different markets require different subtitles, but there are also airline versions that come without riskier scenes, local content requirements like the need to pixelate all full-frontal nudity in Japan, dubbed versions and more. In order to cope with such differences:
Netflix wants to solve problems like these by using the Interoperable Master Format (IMF), an emerging standard for exchanging master files between studios and services like Netflix. In essence, IMF combines the raw video file with a set of instructions that tell Netflix which parts it needs to omit in which regions, and when it needs to use which audio files. “We used to get baked cakes,” said Fetner. “With IMF, we get all the ingredients.”
So good on Netflix for sharing.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
I hate these new series where they develop an elaborate concept but the dumb thing gets cancelled after one season and you never really get to the bottom of anything.
We need a second season to find out who the girl is, what's really happening in that cave, why the senior detective is so circumspect about the details of the disappearances and what really happened to the junior detective.
Is it any good or should it only be viewed by algorithms?
It would be GOOD for them if the competition would be using it.
What is released (I have read the FA) is the fact that studios need only one file and then the standard will determine what country gets what subtitles or language,
That way they will receive only one file with all the info and can automagically do all the processes. So they get a file and only need to determine when they make it available where.
Now this needs to be sorted and verified manually and this will cause errors.
Besides just language settings, it will decide also other things. e.g. special version for airlines. Most likely also for different versions where words are replaced and/or images blurred or scenes taken out or replaces. So a version for kids and one for adults after 21:00. AZs this depends per country, having it automated is a nice thing to have.
And as there are not that many tools available, they make it OSS, so the demand will increase so they will save money. And what they want is that the studios are starting to use it. That way when they get a Disney movie, they receive it and be done with it. No need to have the many versions and make mistakes.
Like using a database to fill info for a website instead of making all pages separately.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I'm only interested if it's got Adam Sandler and/or Kevin James. I bet those guys would be hilarious in 4k.
Why? Neither are remotely funny in HD, or even SD for that matter. Extra pixels wasted putting them on a 4k screen.
I reject your reality
Lena is the centerfold of the November 1972 issue of Playboy. One of the earlier researchers in image processing and compression was trying to find a good test image - glossy photo, large dynamic range, fine detail, and a human face with its fine color gradients. Someone walked in with an issue of Playboy, and they quickly scanned the top third of of the centerfold picture (the non-nude part). It has since become ingrained in the image compression/processing community as an archetype test sample since so many algorithms have been tested against that particular image.
Those guys are so unfunny they suck the humor out of any joke.
I assume that ND restricts making new copyrighted works rather than changing the format. A recode would be seen, legally, as the same work with all rights still held by the original copyright owner, after all.
If I'm wrong here, there's really no fair use exemption, since that would involve copying the entire work, and fair use rarely allows that
Thinking about it, it definitely seems like fair use to me.
Format/time shifting is a fair use case, the amount of work copied is only part of what determines fair use.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
That's true. I was thinking more about distribution.
Since the whole point of this video is to format shift it, I think you're definitely right. Netflix wouldn't choose a licence that prevents that.
The included license says "Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International"
https://media.xiph.org/video/d...
How can competitors use this if noncommercial clause attached?
I just watched it on Netflix and at the end there was a note "©2016, all rights reserved".
So say we all