Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Amazon, Netflix, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, et al Partner To Create Next-Gen Video Codec

posted by takyon on Tuesday September 01 2015, @09:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the open-for-business dept.

tt2575988 writes:

Seven big-name Internet companies today announced formation of the Alliance for Open Media – an open-source project that will develop next-generation media formats, codecs and technologies in the public interest. The Alliance's founding members are Amazon, Cisco, Google, Intel Corporation, Microsoft, Mozilla and Netflix.

Reportedly, the group plans to publish its code under the Apache 2.0 license and it will operate under W3C patent rules, meaning the members will waive royalties from the codec implementations and their patents on the codec itself.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Amazon, Netflix, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, et al Partner To Create Next-Gen Video Codec | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 23 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Tuesday September 01 2015, @09:59PM

    by TheGratefulNet (659) on Tuesday September 01 2015, @09:59PM (#231004)

    I see why the rest might like to control media and the encode, decode, transmission and reception (plus the metrics! the sweet, sweet metrics!). but I'm not seeing what cisco has to gain from anything like this.

    my farthest reach is that cisco wants to be able to DPI your traffic better than anyone else (they certainly do lots of DPI stuff and some of their network mgmt stuff 'likes' to be able to decode traffic for, *cought*, 'better network utilization'). perhaps there is stuff in this codec that gives them an edge in how they can decrypt encrypted streams or pick out your traffic even if embedded in other streams.

    cisco is not a content company. just not sure what their interest in this is. anyone have any clue on this?

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday September 01 2015, @10:12PM

    by frojack (1554) on Tuesday September 01 2015, @10:12PM (#231008) Journal

    Cisco and AMD can add a lot to a codec, by handling some of the work in GPUs, or programmed gate arrays.
    You want them involved.

    Cisco also has been big in teleconferencing, so, yes, they are a media company.

    The question you should be asking is where is AMD and Nvidia?

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday September 01 2015, @10:15PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Tuesday September 01 2015, @10:15PM (#231010) Journal

    Here, let them explain it to you: http://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/world-meet-thor-a-project-to-hammer-out-a-royalty-free-video-codec [cisco.com]

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 01 2015, @10:39PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 01 2015, @10:39PM (#231012)

      Cisco is the one who started this. And from the excellent link you gave:

      As a result, we released project Thor to the community two weeks ago. We open sourced the code, which you can find here: http://thor-codec.org. [thor-codec.org.] We also contributed Thor as an input to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which has begun a standards activity to develop a next-gen royalty free video codec in its NetVC workgroup. Mozilla has also been active in that group, and they have been working on technology as well (called Daala) towards the same goal. As more technology gets contributed to this cause, the greater its chance of success.

  • (Score: 2) by tempest on Tuesday September 01 2015, @10:40PM

    by tempest (3050) on Tuesday September 01 2015, @10:40PM (#231013)

    Cisco does video conferencing, and I imagine their phone ecosystem could benefit from a next gen codec as well.