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September 4, 2007
H264 perspective
H264 perspective: The Moviestar news two weeks ago attracted massive amounts of immediate attention. Now we're starting to see more "what does it all mean" articles. At Streaming Media, "serial entrepreneur" Charlie Oppenheimer see Player support as a clear tipping point, after previous preparation by other parts of the industry for H264 video. I've put a couple of pullquotes into the extended entry here, but I'd really recommend going back to the source and reading the whole thing.
"H.264 is already supported in virtually every corner of the digital video universe. Now, with big internet players like Adobe, Google, and Apple behind it, H.264 is poised to become the format of convergence where all devices have access to an expanding universe of content available via physical media or high-speed networks."
"Adobe Flash Video -- which has been a critical enabler in the explosion of video on the web -- exemplifies strong cross-platform support. I believe that Adobe's consistent high-quality implementation of Flash Video on both Windows and Macs is a key reason for Flash Video's near-ubiquitous adoption by web video sites. In contrast, I believe that the limited-effort cross platform support that Microsoft gives to Windows Media on Mac and Apple gives to QuickTime on Windows is the reason these formats have not achieved similar adoption by video providers. However, in an all-digital world, cross-platform support means more than just the PC...."
"For consumer electronics products, silicon support is critical for a digital video format: Unlike a PC, where there are CPU cycles to burn on complex transformations, consumer electronics products can only decode digital video with dedicated silicon. And so consumer electronics support is predicated on embedded H.264 decoders in a variety of chipset products. As it turns out, virtually all companies that offer digital video decoder silicon have been shipping H.264 products for several years now, including Ambarella, ATI, Broadcom, Conexant, Intel, nVidia, Sigma, ST Micro, TI, Thomson, and many others."
"Microsoft is one company that might offer a counterpoint to 'H.264 uber alles.' VC-1, Microsoft's published specification for what was originally Windows Media 9, is an impressive technology with certain special technical strengths. VC-1 has some notable traction: VC-1 has been endorsed as a standard in the SMPTE organization, it has peer status with H.264 in both the Blu-ray and HD-DVD standards, and it is an option in the DVB-H mobile broadcast standard. But VC-1 has a significant practical problem: Because it is so closely associated with Microsoft, many industry players have instinctively chosen not to support it or to demote it in priority...."
Posted by JohnDowdell at September 4, 2007 12:40 PM