On2 Releases VP6 video codec

A reader writes:"On2 Technologies, the folks who brought you the open-source VP3 video codec (now managed by Theora.org), have released our latest codec, VP6. Highlights include hi-def support with no encoder restrictions, real-time encoding at full D1 resolution, and substantial performance & quality improvements over VP5. Best of all: no "patent pooling" restrictions or external licensing fees, a la MPEG-4."

Hmm

[afree87]

This will be a rather hard codec to propagate, given that many people don't even know or want to know how to install XviD.

Re:This ad paid for by On2

[kerneljacabo]

This isnt just simply any oddball posting up a press release. It is very beneficial to let the community know about large announcemnts. Personally, I think this is fabulous!! Its about time we had a codec like this with all the stupid restrictions.

"no external licensing fees" but ....

[binaryDigit]

OK, the summary says no external licensing fees (though I don't see anywhere on the site itself that makes that claim), but then you do see this statement:

"VP6 is available for commercial licensing. Note that custom engineering services may be required to integrate VP6 into your application."

So I wonder if it's going to be one of those things where almost anything will require "custom engineering services" and they'll just get you there. Maybe they just won't publish an api doc, thereby requiring their services no matter what ;)

Re:NOT Free

[Cyno]

nevertheless I still enjoy being reminded that On2 brought us VP3. I will keep an eye on that company and its products in the future and if I happen to need a commercial solution at some time they will be at the top of my list. :)

Linux download? OS X download?

[Sebby]

This thing only runs on Winblows.

I guess they don't realize that to some content people, cross-platform availability is more important to smaller file size.

Re:Patents?

[Wesley Felter]

No doubt On2 has filed patents on VP6. Their pitch is that all the patents are (supposedly) owned by them instead of 20 different companies, so it's easier to negotiate a license. Of course, if you aren't willing to pay licensing fees at all then it doesn't make any difference.

codec overload

[LordMyren]

does anyone else get the idea that all these new better more innovative codecs are seriously damaging the overall encoding scene? sure, all the computer users can just go download the latest nemo codec pack, but stand alone players trying to support all these new different formats are being over run by a army of different codecs. ultimately we doom ourselves.