Re: [stella] OT: Codecs

Subject: Re: [stella] OT: Codecs
From: Rob <kudla@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 00:13:38 -0400
At 07:56 PM 9/3/01 -0700, Glenn Saunders wrote:
>The new DVD+RW drives will be able to record video directly, analog to 
>digital, onto the drives, in realtime.  That looks like it will become the 
>format of the future for high quality consumer video.

If they'll support a low quality MPEG-4 mode to get like 16 hours of B5
reruns on one disc, it'll be even better ;)  But I'll stick with my TV
computer for now.

>>On the other hand, DiVx isn't even a standard.
>Popularity has a way of deciding standards regardless of what standards 
>bodies dictate.

Most de facto standards don't require a technically illegal action on the
part of the standard's users.  Even MP3 had legitimately licensed encoders
available from the get-go even if no one paid for them.  There is actually
no way to encode or play back DivX;-) video without first infringing on
Microsoft's imaginary property, not to mention MP3 and MPEG-4 patent
holders.  

Even if someone managed to reverse engineer this flavor of MPEG-4, the
patent issue will kill ya.  So it'll continue to be wildly popular with
pirates (and people like me who want to get 6 B5 episodes on a CD and
happen to have a PC in the living room instead of a VCR) but it'll never
get to the hardware phase to reach critical mass as MP3 did -- let alone
VCD.  Trash its quality all you want but VCD/SVCD players are still popular
and attractively cheap in southeast Asia, and lik-sang.com is your friend.
(Though I notice all their cool portable VCD players are out of stock right
now, hmmm....)

Rob


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Current Thread
  • Re: [stella] OT: Codecs, (continued)
        • nj bloodline - Tue, 4 Sep 2001 00:16:48 -0400 (EDT)
        • Glenn Saunders - Tue, 4 Sep 2001 00:56:11 -0400 (EDT)
        • nj bloodline - Tue, 4 Sep 2001 01:33:16 -0400 (EDT)
        • Rob - Tue, 4 Sep 2001 00:56:27 -0400 (EDT)
        • Rob - Tue, 4 Sep 2001 00:22:10 -0400 (EDT) <=
        • nj bloodline - Tue, 4 Sep 2001 01:29:37 -0400 (EDT)
        • Rob - Tue, 4 Sep 2001 08:51:31 -0400 (EDT)
        • nj bloodline - Tue, 4 Sep 2001 11:31:46 -0400 (EDT)
        • Rob - Mon, 3 Sep 2001 23:42:46 -0400 (EDT)