Comment Re:Theora FAIL (Score 1) 361
ah dude... chrome is shipping theora support. If Google is not a big pocket target than what is?
Comment Re:bullcrap (Score 2, Interesting) 313
my reading was $10,000 per year per local market service... assuming your internet services hits many thousands of local markets you would hit the maximum royalty for Participation ie millions. This may be an inaccurate reading. Your reading seems logical as well.
Comment Re:impeding? (Score 1) 313
typo :( ..meant impending
Comment Re:bullcrap (Score 1) 313
I think it by definition bait and switch. It is offered for free right now ... once it more widely adopted and all your infrastructure is organized around using it you have to start paying in 2010. Which is not exactly heavily publicized. This may surprise people that already purchased the encoder only to find that because their site is popular they have to pay once again.
Comment bad orginal source link (Score 1) 1
The story submit system is kind of confusing the original source link should go to http://web.mit.edu/xiphmont/Public/theora/demo7.html not metavid.org (my contact page)
Submission + - Theora ahead of h.264 in objective PSNR quality (metavid.org) 1
bigmammoth writes: "Xiph hackers have been hard at work improving the theora codec over the past year with the latest versions gaining on and passing h.264 in objective PSNR quality measurements. From the update:
Amusingly, it also shows test versions of Thusnelda pulling *ahead* of h264 in terms of objective quality as bitrate increases. It's important to note that PSNR is an objective measure that does not exactly represent perceived quality, and PSNR measurements have always been especially kind to Theora. This is also data from a single clip. That said, it's clear that the gap in the fundamental infrastructure has closed substantially before the task of detailed subjective tuning has begun in earnest.
Momentum is building with a major Open Video Conference in June, the impeding launch of Firefox 3.5 and excitement about wider adoption in a top 4 web site. It's looking like free video codecs may posed a seriously threat to h.264 bait and switch plan to start charging millions for internet streaming of h.264 in 2010."
Comment some source links and information (Score 4, Informative) 334
hmm not the post I would have chosen for this news... Could have pointed out some of the source post announcements and avoid perpetuating a few misconceptions.
I have heard about Theora is that it is technically inferior to many other video codecs
Hence the need for funding the Thusnelda enhancements. Theora is a pretty solid codec and can be greatly improved with a few enhancements on the encoder side.
I wonder if wouldn't be better to direct effort to Dirac, perhaps putting Dirac into an Ogg container
Dirac is best at high resolution high bitrate video and not so good for standard definition low bitrate video, hence an enhanced theora is the optimal way to hit the low bandwidth target. Enabling theora to be competitive or better than others codecs in the low bitrate range in the intimidate future with relatively small investment.
Furthermore dirac is planed for inclusion and will be explored in the tail end of this grant. (once liboggplay is more solid). Making liboggplay playback library solid will enable Dirac support to be solid as well. Since Dirac already has a maturing decoder/encoder library (Schrodinger) and already been mapped to an ogg container (what liboggplay plays).
It's relatively easy to add in additional free codecs with ogg mappings. if( FLAC, Speex or Dirac) and will not be the primary use of the funding so its not focused in on the announcement or secondary coverage of the announcement.
More info on the announcement here and the above mentioned links.
Submission + - Mozilla and Wikimedia Join Forces on Open Video (metavid.org)
bigmammoth writes: "Mozilla has reaffirmed its commitment to open video on the web announcing a $100k grant to the Wikimedia Foundation to help coordinate improvements to ogg Theora. Specifically the grant will include enhancement and integration of the new Thusnelda encoder, improved Ogg network seeking & language selection, and improvements to the core playback libraries used in firefox.
As noted in the wired coverage:
As noted in the wired coverage:
Monday's news is sure to cause a heap of worry at Adobe, Apple and Microsoft. The giants own the web's leading media playback and streaming technologies, and collect the lucrative licensing payments for their use.
This announcement on the heals of archive.org's 200k ogg theora video transcode effort, and improved archive interoperability, should all bode well for open media on the web."
Submission + - Wikipedia's 2008 donation campaign kicks off (wikimedia.org) 1
David Gerard writes: "It's that time of year again: Wikipedia needs your money. The Wikimedia sites don't have ads — it all runs on donations. This year, the Wikimedia Foundation is hitting the theme that Wikipedia, the most popular Wikimedia site, is useful to you every day so deserves your support. The goal this time is six million dollars, which is approximately nothing to run a top 10 site (#8 on Alexa, #4 on ComScore). They're at almost $2 million so far. There's blog buttons and radio/podcast PSAs too. The site had its greatest traffic ever on election night, falling over for a short time under the strain."
Submission + - Trust-metric demo of Wikipedia (ucsc.edu)
An anonymous reader writes: http://wiki-trust.cse.ucsc.edu/ is a copy of Wikipedia at 6 Feb 2007 colored according to their trust metric. This is part of the stable version plan.
Submission + - Xiph Fights Back for inclusion in the HTML5 Draft (xiph.org)
bigmammoth writes: "Last night xiph.org has issued a press release responding to changes made in the HTML5 draft that remove references to ogg codecs and container.
They also point out that Ogg has triggered no litigation to date even though it is very widely used. The same cannot be said for MPEG-licensed codecs.The W3C has expressed a clear intention to officially define video as an integral part of the web by introducing the <video/> tag. Up to this point, video on the web has been presented primarily using a fragmented array of proprietary extensions powered by encumbered formats. Those who cannot use them have been made second-class citizens. Failing to standardize on an unencumbered, reasonably-performing format is a failure to advance beyond this state.
"The MPEG-LA's own sublicense disclaimer warns that licensees are not protected from patent-related litigation nor are they protected from submarine patents.
Submission + - Principles for Open Government Data RFC (opengovdata.org)
dale writes: "This weekend, 30 open government advocates gathered to develop a set of principles of open government data. The meeting, held in Sebastopol, California, was designed to develop a more robust understanding of why open government data is essential to democracy.
The Internet is the public space of the modern world, and through it governments now have the opportunity to better understand the needs of their citizens and citizens may participate more fully in their government. Information becomes more valuable as it is shared, less valuable as it is hoarded. Open data promotes increased civil discourse, improved public welfare, and a more efficient use of public resources. The group is offering a set of fundamental principles for open government data. By embracing the eight principles, governments of the world can become more effective, transparent, and relevant to our lives."
The Internet is the public space of the modern world, and through it governments now have the opportunity to better understand the needs of their citizens and citizens may participate more fully in their government. Information becomes more valuable as it is shared, less valuable as it is hoarded. Open data promotes increased civil discourse, improved public welfare, and a more efficient use of public resources. The group is offering a set of fundamental principles for open government data. By embracing the eight principles, governments of the world can become more effective, transparent, and relevant to our lives."
Submission + - Cese and Desist for Posting "secret" Ingre (indybay.org)
bigmammoth writes: Suterra LLC, a manufacturer of "biorational" pest control products about to be used in residential areas, has issued a cease and desist order to Indybay.org demanding that information about a "secret" ingredient in the CheckMate OLR-F mating disruption pheromone be removed from the site.
Submission + - Brain-computer-interface for Second Life (pinktentacle.com)
Tjeerd writes: ""A research team led by professor Jun'ichi Ushiba of the Keio University Biomedical Engineering Laboratory has developed a BCI system that lets the user walk an avatar through the streets of Second Life while relying solely on the power of thought. To control the avatar on screen, the user simply thinks about moving various body parts — the avatar walks forward when the user thinks about moving his/her own feet, and it turns right and left when the user imagines moving his/her right and left arms.""
Submission + - WoW Character Banned After Paying Almost $10,000 (blogspot.com)
Xight writes: "A character named Zeuzo from a guild called Method on Sylvanas(EU). After getting both pieces to make The Twin Blades of Azzinoth the account was sold to a person by the name of Shaks for roughly 5000pounds(Almost $10,000). The account was banned by blizzard very shortly afterwards. The story made BBC headlines back in September ."
