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Google Buys Video Company On2 for $106.5M

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Re: Google Buys Video Company On2 for $106.5M

#21

Post by danielrhodes »

DarkShikari wrote: post #13

This decision doesn't make any sense to me. There's nothing about On2 that's worth more than ~$10m. On2 is notorious for having fallen behind technology-wise, with VP7 falling by the wayside and VP8 seemingly being just a small upgrade of VP7--and still being vastly inferior to the best free software encoders out there. They've pretty much had to cheat in every single comparison they've posted in order to make it loo…

Yeah, they also made VP6 which is a Flash video format (arguably on par with H264). It's not a bad move on Google's part, despite the open source alternatives that exist.

Re: Google Buys Video Company On2 for $106.5M

#22

Post by DarkShikari »

danielrhodes wrote: post #21
DarkShikari wrote: post #13

This decision doesn't make any sense to me. There's nothing about On2 that's worth more than ~$10m. On2 is notorious for having fallen behind technology-wise, with VP7 falling by the wayside and VP8 seemingly being just a small upgrade of VP7--and still being vastly inferior to the best free software encoders out there. They've pretty much had to cheat in every single comparison they've posted in order to make it loo…

Yeah, they also made VP6 which is a Flash video format (arguably on par with H264). It's not a bad move on Google's part, despite the open source alternatives that exist.

VP6 which is a Flash video format (arguably on par with H264)

I have no idea where this misinformation comes from. VP6 was released well before H.264 and was meant to compete with MPEG-4 Part 2, aka Xvid, DivX, etc. It did that well; it is probably at least comparable to Xvid, though I haven't tested VP6 myself. It is nowhere near H.264, however. A good H.264 encoder can probably beat VP6 by a factor of two in compression.

VP7 was meant to compete with H.264, and is not supported by Flash. It, however, was only competitive with very early H.264 encoders, which were quite bad. It quickly fell out of favor as H.264 encoders got better.

VP8 is meant to compete with H.264 again.

Re: Google Buys Video Company On2 for $106.5M

#24

Post by tyvkiuiyi »

DarkShikari wrote: post #16
shalmanese wrote: post #8

My immediate first thought was also that Ogg Theora & HTML5 played a role in Google's reasoning to buy On2. Even if they've disclaimed all patent rights, Google is providing the deep pockets to keep other vendors reassured about patent trolls.

Remember, On2 already disclaimed all patent rights to VP3, so buying them shouldn't have any effect in that regard.

Doesn't matter, the nice thing about software patents is that somebody somewhere could have a patent on using the number '2' in a video codec. And you never know until they get bought out by your enemy.

Re: Google Buys Video Company On2 for $106.5M

#25

Post by DarkShikari »

tyvkiuiyi wrote: post #24
DarkShikari wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember, On2 already disclaimed all patent rights to VP3, so buying them shouldn't have any effect in that regard.

Doesn't matter, the nice thing about software patents is that somebody somewhere could have a patent on using the number '2' in a video codec. And you never know until they get bought out by your enemy.

Of course, but the point is that if there is a submarine patent--On2 doesn't have it, someone else does, because On2 already disclaimed all of their rights.

And yes, video formats and encoders are notorious for incredibly trivial and retarded patents.

For example, Predicted_MV = Median(Left_MV,Top_MV,TopRight_MV) is patented.

Re: Google Buys Video Company On2 for $106.5M

#28

Post by danbmil99 »

DarkShikari wrote: post #13

This decision doesn't make any sense to me. There's nothing about On2 that's worth more than ~$10m. On2 is notorious for having fallen behind technology-wise, with VP7 falling by the wayside and VP8 seemingly being just a small upgrade of VP7--and still being vastly inferior to the best free software encoders out there. They've pretty much had to cheat in every single comparison they've posted in order to make it loo…

what a bucket of shit
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