MPEG LA Requests Patents f或高效率视频编码

与H.264 firmly entrenched as the market-leading codec, the first of July witnessed the closing of one era and the beginning of another.

在新的开始方面， MPEG LA, the licensing group that drove the MPEG-2 patent pool and attempted to generate a pool for On2 Technologies' VP8, has now put forth a request for essential patents surrounding a subset of video compression known as HEVC, 或高效率视频编码.

HEVC has its roots partially in Scalable Video Coding (SVC), in that it looks to define a variety of parameters at which video can be decoded for various bitrates, 决议, 长宽比. 除了, the advent of the high-efficiency decoding schemes do not limit an encoder from achieving better efficiencies as long as the decoding can be accomplished by any HEVC-compliant decoder.

HEVC also has partial roots in the newly ratified MPEG Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH), in that HEVC uses as its video codec basis H.264 and the decoding could be fragmented along the same lines as an MPEG DASH profile. HEVC also uses AAC for its audio codec, including the high-efficiency version of AAC (HE-AAC) that's more commonly referred to as iTunes+ and uses variable bitrate audio compression.

"MPEG LA is pleased to assist in facilitating a convenient, 独立管理, one-stop patent licensing alternative to assist users with implementation of their technology choices and invites all patent holders to participate," says MPEG LA president and CEO Larry Horn.

July 1, 2012, also marks the end of a fairly active industry forum, the MPEG Industry Forum. But its backers say this closure of MPEG-IF is a victory, not a defeat.

"MPEG Industry Forum activities are now being wound up,爱立信的大卫•普莱斯写道, who served as the most recent president of MPEG-IF. "By July 1, all remaining assets will be put into the hands of the 开放IPTV论坛."

6月推出, 2000, at a time when the streaming industry was splintered along the lines of several proprietary codecs -- including Microsoft's Video for Windows and WindowsMedia, RealVideo, and early versions of On2's VP codec series -- the MPEG-IF set about to "educate and evangelize an emerging standards-based solution" with the help of a variety of groups and news outlets, 包括StreamingMedia.com.

Led by Sebastian Moeritz, now a professor at St. Petersburg University and the chairman of MPEG-IF, the industry forum advocated for H.264 (AVC or MPEG-4 Part 10) to replace the aging MPEG-2 codec in most use cases. According to MPEG-IF, that goal has been reached.

"As silicon continued to advance, alternatives to MPEG-2 emerged in many forms," writes Price. 慢慢地，但肯定地，H.264 gained mindshare and then market share and today is clearly the dominant codec of choice replacing MPEG-2 around the world."

除了 to turning over the assets of MPEG-IF to the 开放IPTV论坛, 弗里蒙特, California-based MPEG-IF also closed down its interoperability test rounds, the MPEG IF Master Class series of 信息 events, 以及它的技术列表.