All The Big Names Are Joining A New Alliance For Open Media

[Marc Driftmeyer]

HEVC Current list of Licensees:

Abox42 GmbH
AirTies Kablosuz Iletisim Sanayi ve Dis Ticaret A.S.
Amino Communications Limited
Appear TV AS
Apple Inc.
Arcadyan Technology Corporation
Audials AG
AVC Multimedia Software Co., Ltd.
Bang & Olufsen a/s
BrightSign, LLC
British Broadcasting Corporation
Comigo Ltd.
CyberLink Corp.
DEXATEK Technology Ltd.
DTS, Inc.
Dune HD LTD
Elemental Technologies, Inc.
Epson Direct Corporation
Fluendo S.A.
Fujitsu Limited
Fujitsu Technology Solutions GmbH
Funai Electric Co., Ltd.
Hangzhou HIKVISION Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
Harmonic Inc.
Hirschmann Car Communication GmbH
HUMAX Co., Ltd.
Hybroad Vision Holdings Limited
Infomir, L.L.C.
Interra Systems, Inc.
Korean Broadcasting System (KBS)
KT Corp
Lemke Software GmbH
Loewe Technologies GmbH
Manzanita Systems, LLC
Media Excel, Inc.
MEDIAEDGE Corporation
Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd.
Motama GmbH
MulticoreWare, Inc.
NEC Corporation
Nikon Systems Inc.
NTT Advanced Technology Corporation
ON Corp US
Orange SA
Pegasys Inc.
Picturall Ltd
Raytheon Cyber Products, Inc.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Shenzhen Geniatech Inc., Ltd.
Shenzhen TVT Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
SmartLabs LLC
sMedio, Inc.
Solveig Multimedia
STRONG International Ltd.
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.
TATUNG Technology Inc.
Telestream, Inc.
Turbosat International Ltd.
Vidyo, Inc.
Wistron NeWeb Corporation

[Gusar]

Cisco had H.264 skin in the game and was at the table. They don't have H.265 now.

Wrong, Cisco has H.265 patents. As does Microsoft. And yet, they're in this Alliance. Heck, even Google has H.265 patents! From Motorola.

PDF Patent List for HEVC: http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/.../hevc-att1.pdf

That's the MPEG-LA pool *only*. But even with HEVC Advance and an apparent third pool, all three handle maybe half of all H.265 patents.

They have ZERO LEVERAGE.

Google has most of smartphones/tablets. Microsoft has most of desktops/laptops. Amazon and Netflix deliver among others to... Android and ChromeOS (Google), and Windows (Microsoft). But here you are, saying that the Alliance has "zero leverage". With caps even. Err, yeah...

VP8/9 being proprietary Google formats, they were easy to ignore by Apple and also Microsoft. But with an Alliance, things are quite different. Especially when Microsoft is part of the Alliance, and as a first step will be adding VP8/9 to the Edge browser.

[teldar]

Wrong, Cisco has H.265 patents. As does Microsoft. And yet, they're in this Alliance. Heck, even Google has HEVC patents! From Motorola.


That's the MPEG-LA pool *only*. But even with HEVC Advance and an apparent third pool, all three handle maybe half of all HEVC patents.


Google has most of smartphones/tablets. Microsoft has most of desktops/laptops. Amazon and Netflix deliver among others to... Android and ChromeOS (Google), and Windows (Microsoft). But here you are, saying that the Alliance has "zero leverage". With caps even. Err, yeah...

VP8/9 being proprietary Google formats, they were easy to ignore by Apple and also Microsoft. But with an Alliance, things are quite different. Especially when Microsoft is part of the Alliance, and as a first step will be adding VP8/9 to the Edge browser.

Thank you for slapping some sense into him. Theses companies together have the power to shape the future of a technology. If none of them wants to support H265, it's MPEG-LA who has zero leverage.

[Gusar]

If none of them wants to support H265, it's MPEG-LA who has zero leverage.

Well, MPEG-LA still has the broadcast world, and UHD Blu-ray. So HEVC will likely stay around regardless of this Alliance.

[dragorth]

Though Michael doesn't mention it, its important to note all of this is happening under the auspices of the Web standards committee, in the NETVC working group. This is intended to play out like opus, with a cross platform, cross browser codec that is open and unencumbered by patents. They will not need leverage with the patent groups, as they will use their own patents to create something new. And this does represent most of the platforms on the web that use video in some form.

[teldar]

Well, MPEG-LA still has the broadcast world, and UHD Blu-ray. So HEVC will likely stay around regardless of this Alliance.

I know, I was exaggerating. But maybe that would force them to review their license agreement. Because apparently the H265 codec is looking more and more expensing with the new pools of patents arising, and still half of the patent not covered.

[Gusar]

But maybe that would force them to review their license agreement.

Definitely. Maybe not so much MPEG-LA, but HEVC Advance will for sure review their demands now.

[xeekei]

On what planet are these all the big names. Here is a reality check, Michael: None of these players have H.265 patents to come to the table and negotitate with MPEG-LA. Cisco had H.264 skin in the game and was at the table. They don't have H.265 now.

Mozilla? Don't make me laugh.

Amazon doesn't have the IP. They aren't a big player.

Microsoft has nothing anyone wants, so they have no skin in the game.

Ditto with Google. Their inferior offerings aren't getting traction with OEMs producing content.

This is a group of wannabes getting nothing from MPEG-LA.

PDF Patent List for HEVC: http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/.../hevc-att1.pdf

Not a single player on your Big List has a patent for it.

They have ZERO LEVERAGE.

It seems obvious to me the only way in is to buy out a member and they aren't selling.

Mozilla, Microsoft, and Google all have the three major browsers.

Google also has YouTube and Android.

Microsoft has Windows (Desktop and Phone), and has Skype, a video conference platform.

Cisco also has a proprietary video conference platform used heavily in enterprise.

Amazon has Prime and Twitch.

If all these companies decided to not support H.265 in their products, that codec might aswell not exist.

[jacob]

That's brilliant. A new codec by Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Netflix, specifically designed to support DRM. I can't wait! </sarcasm>

[pal666]

Yet another alliance that most likely won't deliver. FFS We don't even have HW accelerated VP9 yet.

because vp9 has no aliance