[vorbis] PlusV

[Myles Buckley]

Tuomas Maattanen [mailto:maattanen at iki.fi] wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I haven't seen this mentioned here before.
>
>http://www.plusv.org/
>
>"With traditional MP3, a typical Near CD Quality audio file has been
> encoded with a data rate of 128 kbits/s. While this is ok for people
> with big hard disks and fast Internet connections, this data speed
> has clearly been a bottleneck for people using modems or storing their
> music into 32 or 64 MB portable player FLASH cards. PlusV is a brand
> new audio compression enhancement technology that allows audio files 
> to be compressed in as little as 64 or even 48 kbits/s.
>
> PlusV is not a compression scheme of its own, it is an extension that 
> can be applied to existing audio formats. When combined with the MP3 
> technology, MP3+V files are fully compatible with existing MP3 files
> and decoders. To get full audio quality out of PlusV files, you just 
> need a PlusV capable decoder, like a PlusV capable WinAmp plugin."
>

you forgot to include this:

<quote>
Patents - PlusV has a patent pending for its underlying technology. 
Openness of PlusV - In contrast to some other low bit-rate audio formats,
PlusV will be almost completely open for anyone to use.
</quote>

Patents on software blows goats.
It is NOT completely open and it (appears) to rely on an already encumbered
technology (mp3).  I do not expect that its high-frequency encoding
operation.
 
<quote>
Openness means that the full specification for the format will be available
for anyone to download for free. Also example reference software for
encoding and decoding is available both as Windows binaries and platform
independent source codes (with a slight slant on the Unix side).
Software developers are allowed to use the format freely. The only thing we
ask is that they would register a license through our standard register
form. The software license is free, and will stay so.
</qoute>

This _appears_ to be good but I don't see a _legal_ declaration that this
software licence cannot be revoked or modified by the issuer without consent
of the issuee.
There is NO statement that the license is BSD'd or GPL'd or LGPL'd or xxx'd!

<qoute>
Manufacturers willing to license PlusV technology to their existing codecs
will have to pay a moderate license fee.
</quote>

The hardware market has proven itself slow to embrace mp3pro (another pay to
use format) and is still slow to embrace .ogg which BSD'd and _is_ free.
This format will not be able to penetrate the market any better than mp3pro
regardless of its technical advantages.

Myles

--- >8 ----
List archives:  http://www.xiph.org/archives/
Ogg project homepage: http://www.xiph.org/ogg/
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'vorbis-request at xiph.org'
containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body.  No subject is needed.
Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.