H.264 Support Finally Comes To Fedora Via Cisco's OpenH264

[amp3030]

The binary is built using our Koij build infrastructure so you get all the same features you get with any other Fedora software, like verifiable checksums etc.

Shouldn't the binary be directly downloaded from Cisco otherwise the patent license Cisco got from the MPEG LA is not valid? I remember this was the (strange) legality of this deal, otherwise the patent on H.264 is fundamentally made free (which I guess is not the case).

[RahulSundaram]

Shouldn't the binary be directly downloaded from Cisco otherwise the patent license Cisco got from the MPEG LA is not valid? I remember this was the (strange) legality of this deal, otherwise the patent on H.264 is fundamentally made free (which I guess is not the case).

Fedora uses the source to build in Koji and provides the binaries to Cisco which makes them available. It is all explained in the linked blog post

https://ausil.us/wordpress/?p=126

[numasan]

And as an ENcoder, it would be better to skip h264 in favor of things that are actually free. The only use for h264 is in consumption.

Weird statement. How would you consume something if it is not created?

[amp3030]

Fedora uses the source to build in Koji and provides the binaries to Cisco which makes them available. It is all explained in the linked blog post

https://ausil.us/wordpress/?p=126

Wow cool. Does this mean that the problem with Firefox is also solved and Mozilla can download for example your compiled binary from wherever it is available?

And just to be clear: Did Cisco made an extra flexibility on its stance than when it originally announced the deal with Mozilla, or everybody could do this from the beginning?

Thank you very much for your insight!

[pal666]

Weird statement. How would you consume something if it is not created?

very nice question. you wouldn't. so by not creating h264 you wouldn't make poor us people suffer from it. create vpx

[Guest]

Isn't is simpler to activate rpmfusion repo and then install x264? Less letters to type and more functional H.264 support! ;-)

Yeah, when it works (afaik Rawhide is broken or at least was for months, and considering F23's support was delayed a while, I wonder about F24 even)

[ChristianSchaller]

Wow cool. Does this mean that the problem with Firefox is also solved and Mozilla can download for example your compiled binary from wherever it is available?

And just to be clear: Did Cisco made an extra flexibility on its stance than when it originally announced the deal with Mozilla, or everybody could do this from the beginning?

Thank you very much for your insight!

We did a special deal with Cisco to have them host this in RPM for us. Also we will make sure it works for Firefox, but I can't say if it does right now or not.

[droidhacker]

Weird statement. How would you consume something if it is not created?

When you watch Netflix, did you compress the video streams yourself? If your answer is NO, then this answers your question more relevantly than you asked it.

Are YOU distributing h264 videos that you DID compress? If the answer is yes, then SHAME ON YOU.

[bastiaan]

Err no, it certainly can. It has already been approved by Fedora legal. FYI, you are quoting a page written by me back to me. That page is not the official legal policy. It has this prominent warning on top

"This information is provided only for answering common questions from Fedora users and should not be read as legal advice"

Fair enough, then what is the "official" legal policy?

[Lysius]

Yeah, when it works (afaik Rawhide is broken or at least was for months, and considering F23's support was delayed a while, I wonder about F24 even)

F23 support is still not really official and everything is in "updates-testing". Also there is no rpmfusion support for RHEL/ Centos 7 yet.
Seems like rpmfusion is dying together with the suitability for normal home use of Fedora and Centos.