MPEG-4 Alternatives

[arn]

Slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org) linked to this Salon article (http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/03/06/mpeg/index.html) which discusses MPEG-LA's licensing terms and how this opens the market up to cheaper (though less powerful) technologies...

Somewhat encouraging is this quote:

"At the end of the day, MPEG-LA is in the business of marketing a license," says Larry Horn, vice president of licensing and business development MPEG-LA. "If this technology goes totally unused, the patent holders lose out. We have an incentive to get it right."

[Xapplimatic]

That was my feeling. I hope they will cave and go with Apple's demand which is simply a per codec royalty and not some devastatingly complex and expensive pay per view or pay per stream (which ends up being passed on as a pay per view charge to the end user as Apple correctly noted)..

Oh well, if MP4 doesn't shape up, there will always be Sorenson 4.. ?

[Pepzhez]

My experience with MPEG-4 codecs (most of them beta releases, admittedly) demonstrates that MPEG-4 is vastly inferior to Sorenson 3 (and, yes, Sorenson 4 will be even better; just study the quality jump from Sorenson 2.2 to Sorenson 3). Hell, even On2VP3 clearly beats MPEG-4 compression (and I haven't yet gotten a chance to use On2VP4) - and the Salon article clearly admits this.

So my question is - why is everyone desperately clamoring for MPEG-4??? It seems that it is already, even before its dragged-out release, an obsolete codec. Guess it's because it's being hyped as the latest and greatest, when in actual fact it is neither.

Besides, all the licensing/royalty garbage the MPEG group is whining about is an ominous sign indeed.

If you want superior to MPEG-4 compression TODAY, simply download the FREE and OPEN SOURCE On2VP3 codec. It won't cost you a thing and will give better results than MPEG-4. Believe me, I know.