Originally posted by Ericg
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Cisco Open-Sources H.264 Codec, Pushes WebRTC
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So now we're going to rely on a binary blob from Cisco for WebRTC? Thanks but no thanks. It's important that WebRTC standarizes on a fully open source and royalty free codec which can be ported and supported everywhere, currently that is vp8/vp9.
Now if MPEGLA were to make h264 royalty free for everyone then that would be another thing entirely.
This announcement is simply MPEGLA's attempt to prevent WebRTC to standarize around VP8/VP9, and Cisco is a h264 patent holder and part of the MPEGLA so this is not an altruistic move by any means.
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Originally posted by XorEaxEax View PostSo now we're going to rely on a binary blob from Cisco for WebRTC? Thanks but no thanks. It's important that WebRTC standarizes on a fully open source and royalty free codec which can be ported and supported everywhere, currently that is vp8/vp9.
Now if MPEGLA were to make h264 royalty free for everyone then that would be another thing entirely.
This announcement is simply MPEGLA's attempt to prevent WebRTC to standarize around VP8/VP9, and Cisco is a h264 patent holder and part of the MPEGLA so this is not an altruistic move by any means.
Let's just use VP8/VP9 with Opus for WebRTC.
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On the other hand, this seems to mean that ubuntu and other distros can now include a gratis h264 codec in their non-free repositories, that anyone can install and use.
Although I'm a fan of VP8/VP9, this seems like a big win, considering most modern video is in h264.
Edit: Note the extra implied advantage that Firefox will now have h264 in linux, bringing it to feature parity with Firefox on Windows/OSX and with Chrome.
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Originally posted by shmerl View PostIs Cisco the only holder of H.264 patents? I thought there is a whole cartel of those.
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Originally posted by stikonas View PostIndeed! And what a convenient way for NSA to include some backdoors in those binaries. You are downloading binaries instead of source, you can't check whether they correspond to the published source.
Let's just use VP8/VP9 with Opus for WebRTC.
On Windows and Mac, Firefox already supports h.264 because Microsoft and Apple ship a codec for it themselves, and pay the royalty fee themselves.
On Linux, Firefox is getting support for Gstreamer 1.x (already have 0.10) and can use the h.264 codec from Gstreamer.
So in order for Firefox to download the codec from Cisco, you are going to have to NOT be on Windows, NOT be on Mac, and be on Linux WITHOUT Gstreamer, THEN it'll have to download from Cisco.All opinions are my own not those of my employer if you know who they are.
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Originally posted by stikonas View PostIndeed! And what a convenient way for NSA to include some backdoors in those binaries. You are downloading binaries instead of source, you can't check whether they correspond to the published source.
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