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Ask Slashdot: What Quicktime Format for X-Platform?
Harry Zink
asks: "Since there is no Linux solution for playing
Apple's QuickTime 4 movies, I'm trying to offer to some of
my clients (which do movie sites) versions of their
trailers in a QuickTime format that *can* be viewed by
Linux users (and, in fact, it should be listed as 'for
Linux) - key query here being: What is the best QuickTime
format and compressor for that purpose? What viewers exist
on the Linux platform to view QuickTime, and what codecs do
they support?" Let's change "Linux" to "cross-platform",
here. There are several OSes that are also in the same boat
as Linux when it comes to QuickTime support. It's sad
how, up to QT4, QuickTime was known as the cross-platform
multimedia format, but now it's gone the same route
as AVI. Can QT compete? Should Apple rethink it's position
and open up QT4? I certainly would like such a move.
Umm. all those "free software people" innovate all the time. And even if they didn't, what do you think Microsoft does? They buy, lie, beg, cheat and steal for their software. If you don't believe me, I could give examples (programs with non-innovative names and designs such as Windows, Money, Explorer, etc., etc.) but I'd rather give the positive examples, like C, or X-Windows, or frickin' *disk quotas*... (I don't know who 'invented' that one, but I know that Microsoft still hasn't implemented it, but won't until at least NT 5.0, when they start corrupting many innovative open standards made by those bothersome 'free software people'...)
As for audio and video, there isn't a whole lot of community knowledge about this. Actually, with mp3's, there's getting to be more people programming encoders and decoders for that, which is promising. But there has already been much time and money spent by corporations with deep pockets and many software patents in this field, and that makes things difficult.
So, I agree that there hasn't been a whole lot of free software audio/video innovation, per se, but we already have three major formats, with many versions and codecs, and some of them are open. But please don't say that because of this, free software isn't innovative, because that's simply wrong. It has to reimplement proprietary 'standards', but that should not be confused with always copying other people's implementations. Rather, it is providing open support for someone else's brain-dead protocols and formats, when they didn't have the courtesy to do it themselves. Got that?
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
A miocrosoft employee once pointed out that all the free software people ever do is copy existing implementations they never innovate.
Unfortunatly this seems to be right in a good deal of cases. What we really should be trying to do is construct an open video compresion codec that has similar quality to sorenson...as we should to with mp3 and all sorts of other formats.
Free software succeded with bzip2 bringing free and superior conresion to linux surely we have people bright enough to do the same thing with video and audio.
Marriage is the "pseudo-ethics" that cloaks the messy truth of sexuality in the raiment of propriety -- it's "Don't Ask,
Some might find this interesting... this was the last is a brief series of communications I had with Apple early this past April regarding them waking up, smelling the coffee, and actively pursuing the proliferation of the full QT playback engine. This was spurred by the Sorenson-only Star Wars trailer that had just been released.
What I gleaned from this is that, with Sorenson, they are essentially trying to out-Microsoft Microsoft. They are a generation behind in realizing that Microsoft itself is doomed at the hands of open formats.
Subject: Re: Open QT Plea
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 11:17:39 -0700
From: Steve Bannerman
To: Practice Corporation
The conclusion we have drawn is that what you really want is for Sorenson to work with other multimedia architectures besides QT. This is a sitcky issue. As you know, we have an exclusive arrangement with Sorenson for QT. This arrangement is based more on Marketing and business issues than it is on technological ones.
I am broaching the subject with executive mgmt, but this is going to require a shift in our corporate philosophy that has significant ramifications in outher areas. We need to fully understand all these issues before we leap into action. In other words, we will not have a resolution to this issue overnight...
steve
Speaking of MPEG, does anyone know of any *nix software that can actually *compress* MPEG movies? I'm sure there is some, but it doesn't seem to be quite as publicised as it probably should. I do a lot of POV-ray animations, and find myself compiling GIF animations to view them under Linux, which is just about the silliest animation format ever made. When I do a final render, I have to reboot into MacOS and use a shareware program called Moover to compile the frames into Quicktime. This is quite possibly the most annoying operation ever, and would very much like some software that I could use under Linux that could turn a bunch of frame images into an MPEG movie.
...)
Look on Freshmeat today. Somebody just posted something called "MPEG Tools 1.0" which is a collection of various tools from around the internet for encoding MPEG-1 files (with all the cool stuff like stereo sound,
"Software is like sex- the best is for free"
Those interested in playing back MPEG 1 videos with sound on Linux might want to check out: http://www.lokigames.com/opensource/opensource.htm l. Source is available under the LGPL.
Scott Draeker
President
Loki Entertainment Software