Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 16th May 2010 12:52 UTC, submitted by mrsteveman1
Mozilla, sticking to its ideals of the open web, decided long ago that support for the patent-encumbered H264 codec would not be included in any of its products. Not only is H264 wholly incompatible with the open web and Free software, it is also incredibly expensive. Mozilla could use one of the open source implementations, but those are not licensed, and the MPEG-LA has been quite clear in that it will sue those who encode or decode H264 content without a license. Software patents, however, are only valid in some parts of the world, so an enterprising developer has started a project that was sure to come eventually: Firefox builds with H264 support.
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RE[4]: Why not just use built in decoders?
by lemur2 on Sun 16th May 2010 23:14
in reply to "RE[3]: Why not just use built in decoders?"
Member since:2007-02-17
"Easier then (in Linux land, at least) to use the decoder embedded into the video card.
As far as I know there *is* no 'video decoder' embedded in video cards. There is dedicated signal processing hardware that does things video codecs need to do quickly (like DFTs, colour conversion etc.). But there's nothing that takes H.264 as an input and gives you raw video as an output. " Here are the specs for my video card:
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-4000/...
ATI Avivo™ HD Video and Display Platform
2nd generation Unified Video Decoder (UVD 2)
Enabling hardware decode acceleration of H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2
2nd generation Unified Video Decoder (UVD 2)
Enabling hardware decode acceleration of H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2
There is also quite a long list of other functions related to hardware video acceleration, although these are not specific to h.624 I would think.
In any event, the video card hardware covers the patented functions of H.264. There can be no patents applicable to getting the video data stream in to and out from these hardware functions, because those processes are in no way novel or inventive.
Since I paid for the video card, I have an implied license to use all of the functions of the card listed in the specifications (link above), even if the OS that I run happens to be Linux.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implied_license
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhaustion_doctrine
Therefore, I am licensed to use UVD 2 (which is described as a 2nd generation Unified Video Decoder enabling hardware decode acceleration of H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2) on my ATI card (even if I run Linux as my OS). Therefore, also, it is legal for Mozilla to ship an open source browser that used UVD 2 (if it was present) to decode h.264 videos.
Edited 2010-05-16 23:24 UTC
RE[5]: Why not just use built in decoders?
by steogede2 on Tue 18th May 2010 12:47
in reply to "RE[4]: Why not just use built in decoders?"
Member since:2007-08-17
Here are the specs for my video card:
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-4000/...
"ATI Avivo™ HD Video and Display Platform
2nd generation Unified Video Decoder (UVD 2)
Enabling hardware decode acceleration of H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2
There is also quite a long list of other functions related to hardware video acceleration, although these are not specific to h.624 I would think.
"
Does Hardware Accelerated Decoding (or "hardware decode acceleration") === Hardware Decoding? I know that the terms are often used synonymously, but are they the same thing. Surely your graphics card still requires some software which understands h.264, to tell the GPU what to do.
News
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"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
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Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."More News »
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2006-07-25
As far as I know there *is* no 'video decoder' embedded in video cards. There is dedicated signal processing hardware that does things video codecs need to do quickly (like DFTs, colour conversion etc.). But there's nothing that takes H.264 as an input and gives you raw video as an output.