Hasta La Gadget!

Just when Google thought everything was going swell with its open source VP8 video standard for the web, up pops one last hurdle. And it’s a big one: Nokia has suddenly decided to use the patent system to try to prevent VP8 from being adopted as a free (or at least free-er) alternative to the license-laden H.264. Why would it do such a thing? Because, according to a statement given to FOSS Patents, the Finnish manufacturer believes VP8 isn’t truly open. It describes the codec as a “proprietary technology” that offers “no advantages” over H.264 and that Google is “attempting to force” on others as part of its WebM project. What’s more, Nokia claims VP8 infringes on its own intellectual property and says it isn’t prepared to license any patents that may be required to let VP8 flourish. Oh dear. This problem may now need even more money thrown at it.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile, Nokia, Google

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Via: The Register

Source: FOSS Patents

Any smartphone owner who’s ever watched a streaming HD video buffer… and buffer… and buffer on even LTE connections will appreciate the ITU’s speediness today. Just months after MPEG proposed the extra-miserly H.265 video codec, the ITU has approved it as an official standard. As it’s greenlit so far, the format (also known as High Efficiency Video Coding) includes 8-bit, 10-bit and photo-oriented profiles that should cover most 2D capture and playback. Pros are promised 12-bit and chroma profiles in the future, while there’s work on 3D for all of us. We’ll have to wait for both software support and hardware acceleration to reap the rewards, but there should be many: the halved bandwidth requirements have obvious benefits for cellular devices as well as 4K media delivery for that rash of giant TVs about to hit the market. Let’s hope that camera and mobile device makers are just as impatient as we are.

Filed under: Cameras, Software, HD

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: ITU

Skype‘s got a new audio codec that it thinks you should be pumped about, and it’s called “Opus.” It’s been kicked around at Skype since March 2009, though work didn’t begin in earnest until June of the same year, and it was just certified by the IETF as a standard of online audio. Senior Skype architect Koen Vos lead a team of audio engineers to create the hybrid audio codec, combining Skype’s own “SILK” codec with Xiph.Org’s “CELT” codec, intending to create a low-bandwidth codec “designed for the internet.” But what does that mean for us? It means “CD quality” audio (fullband stereo sound) over Skype, regardless of internet connection. And what about those pesky packet loss issues that cause Skype calls to often sound choppy? “It has multiple mechanics to deal with and recover from packet loss plaguing the network,” promises audio/video product engineering director Karlheinz Wurm. So … uh, less of a chance of sounding like an Autobot then? Great!

Wurm says the new codec “will make a quiet but crystal clear entry into the world” without naming exactly when. And yes, Opus is expected to become standard across all Skype platforms. What’s that, you want to watch a 45 minute speech about Opus? We’ve got you covered, just below the break.

Continue reading Skype promising CD quality sound from new ‘Opus’ audio codec, fewer choppy calls

Filed under: Networking, Software, Mobile

Skype promising CD quality sound from new ‘Opus’ audio codec, fewer choppy calls originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 11:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All of that squabbling over H.264 may be rendered moot in the near future. The Motion Picture Experts Group (better known as MPEG) has just let us know that it was quietly drafting a new video standard while everyone was on summer vacation last month: H.265, also called High Efficiency Video Coding, promises to squeeze video sizes with double the efficiency of H.264. As you might imagine, this could lead either to a much smaller video footprint for bandwidth-starved mobile users or a hike to image quality with the same size as before. Imagine fast-loading HD streaming on 4G, or cable TV without all the excess compression, and you’ve got the idea. Ericsson Research visual technology lead Per Fröjdh anticipates H.265 coming as soon as 2013, when our smartphones and tablets are most likely to play it first. TV and other areas might have to wait, although Fröjdh is offering a consolation prize — he’s teasing a separate MPEG project that could give us glasses-free, compressed 3D video as a standard by 2014.

Continue reading MPEG drafts twice-as-efficient H.265 video standard, sees use in phones as soon as 2013

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Software

MPEG drafts twice-as-efficient H.265 video standard, sees use in phones as soon as 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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