Digital Video in Squeak

Jan Bottorff janb at pmatrix.com
Tue Apr 24 05:20:34 UTC 2001


> > A quick search on the net gave me a pointer to a GPL license DV codec.
> > http://sourceforge.net/projects/libdv/
> > Could be used for inspiration :-)
>
>I'll just write my own, thanks. I've seen here on the list recently what
>happens when you even just talk about these stupid licenses, and I'd just as
>soon be unencumbered. GPL is a brain dead idea to me, and I don't want to
>expose myself to any bit of it. The documentation is more than adequate on
>how to decode/encode the DV stream.

You might want to be careful about avoiding patented algorithms. For DV 
encoding, you have to generate a fixed data rate from frames of variable 
compressibility, and there are a bunch of patents that cover this. I 
believe specifically there is also a patent that covers selection of 
alternative DCT algorithms based on inter field motion. Finding 
non-patented algorithms that are fast may be tricky. There are also a bunch 
of patents on speedy DCT/iDCT implementation.

Also note that just because something is GPL'ed, doesn't mean it's patent safe.

- Jan






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