Libav Adds OpenH264 Encoder Support: Good Performance, BSD Licensed

[karasu]

Why, just why?
x264 is opensource, extremely advanced and fully flexible in speed/quality choice.
If anyone wanted fast and poor quality at least use the GPU.
Don't get me wrong, it is great to see opensource effort, but this does not make any sense at all?

Because of software patents, if you want to distribute x264 in the USA, you have to get a licence from the patents holders. Mozilla don't want/can't pay for that, so they found this deal with Cisco to ensure that h264 can be used in Firefox. If you already have h264 codec on your system (through gstreamer) I think Firefox can use directly that (not sure if this is implemented yet).

[Nille]

Why, just why?
x264 is opensource, extremely advanced and fully flexible in speed/quality choice.

Its a different license. x264 is GPL and this one is BSD

[CrystalGamma]

Its a different license. x264 is GPL and this one is BSD

That's the least of the issues. It's about the PATENT license, not the source code license.
Seriously, the fact that the license is so fragile that you have to download the binary yourself (redistributed by distros doesn't count) is evidence enough that software patents have do die.

[Nille]

That's the least of the issues. It's about the PATENT license, not the source code license.

Sure it is. for a commercial x264 license you has to pay too. and if you use ffmpeg you can't use x264 because of the GPL. now you can use a ffmpeg LGPL build with the h264 BSD Blob from oracle.

[CrystalGamma]

Sure it is. for a commercial x264 license you has to pay too. and if you use ffmpeg you can't use x264 because of the GPL. now you can use a ffmpeg LGPL build with the h264 BSD Blob from oracle.

I was pretty sure ffmpeg could use x264 for a while now ...
At least on my system I get:

$ ffmpeg -codecs 2>/dev/null |grep x264
 DEV.LS h264                 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10 (decoders: h264 h264_vdpau ) (encoders: libx264 libx264rgb )

[Nille]

I was pretty sure ffmpeg could use x264 for a while now ...

No one say something different. But its then GPL and no longer LGPL

[karasu]

I was pretty sure ffmpeg could use x264 for a while now ...

This does not grant you the right to use it commercially. And h264 patents is why x264 is not part of the base distro packages.

[Luke]

Firefox uses gstreamer just fine

Because of software patents, if you want to distribute x264 in the USA, you have to get a licence from the patents holders. Mozilla don't want/can't pay for that, so they found this deal with Cisco to ensure that h264 can be used in Firefox. If you already have h264 codec on your system (through gstreamer) I think Firefox can use directly that (not sure if this is implemented yet).

Firefox uses gstreamer just fine, ran it by default if present beginning with version 26. I've used it instead of Flash since version 24, still use it today instead of Cisco's codec.

One problem with the newer system is the "GMPInstallManager" that installs Cisco's codec and any updates effectively sends Mozilla a list of every IP address you use and when you connected to it, within a few minutes. Not only to I disable the Cisco codec and use Gstreamer, I now have to go into about:config and remove the URL's for the GMPInstallManager so I can connect to the Internet on the road without anyone but my intended destination site getting server logs.

[Luke]

In the long run, this could allow commerical use of Kdenlive, Openshot, etc

Because of software patents, if you want to distribute x264 in the USA, you have to get a licence from the patents holders. Mozilla don't want/can't pay for that, so they found this deal with Cisco to ensure that h264 can be used in Firefox. If you already have h264 codec on your system (through gstreamer) I think Firefox can use directly that (not sure if this is implemented yet).

Right now Kdenlive works poorly with libav and AVCHD files, but well with ffmpeg. Assuming either that this bug is fixed or that ffmpeg also allows this codec as an additional option in some future build, it would allow license-sensitive commercial users to buy the commerical license for Cisco's codec and run it. Right now they cannot use a FOSS video editor without exposing themselves to theoretical MPEG-LA codec suits. For the rest of us, governments lost control over "illegal" software about 15 years ago and we can ignore patents outright so long as trade deals don't make it too hard for distributors to find host countries.

As for the ffmpg/Libx264 license issue, libx264 is also a separate package, and Ubuntu et all do not hesistate to distribute it. Given that nobody has been able to prevent people from downloading the DRM busting libdvdcss library, I would not worry too much about current or future codec patents for individual use. Monetized use is another story, thus the libav wrapper for Cisco' "Open" H264.

[Ferdinand]

The MPEG LA system is not as evil as clueless people often make sound. License fees are capped and in many conditions do not even have to be paid at all.
In Ciscos case they likely already reached the cap through their VoIP business.

Seriously, more people should read the documents at http://www.mpegla.com/

They are evil because they use patents as a weapon instead of protecting the inventor. Because of this you limit the usefulness of the video codec. And because this codec exists you can't provide an open one like vp8/9 for most people think 264 is good enough.
Without these patent abusers we would still have great codecs with the difference that once they are developed everybody and everything can use them.