That really was the idea behind MPEG4 all along, that it should provide compression for streaming applications, and that MPEG2 should be used for movies where the quality was really important.
But it would be really good if they could use some open and unencumbered standards. DIVX;-) was really cheap, just ripping off Microsoft's binaries and putting some cracks on them. I don't think they could have made a truly free implementation because of all the patents involved, so I think it's time to move beyond MPEG4 and get a totally new and free standard, like Ogg Vorbis is doing.
Merced (oops... Itanium) is way too complicated. It has a ton of stuff that it doesn't need and shouldn't have. Plus it requires brand new compilers and optimizations. It will be like the P4, but much worse because old code won't run at all until it is recompiled.
Sledgehammer will be a lot better. Even if you can't recompile your code, it will run it as is, and do a great job of it.
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But it would be really good if they could use some open and unencumbered standards. DIVX;-) was really cheap, just ripping off Microsoft's binaries and putting some cracks on them. I don't think they could have made a truly free implementation because of all the patents involved, so I think it's time to move beyond MPEG4 and get a totally new and free standard, like Ogg Vorbis is doing.
Sledgehammer will be a lot better. Even if you can't recompile your code, it will run it as is, and do a great job of it.