Schrödinger Project

[albertgasset]

From http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=9381578&forum_id=47279:

BBC and Fluendo are working on a new implementation of the Dirac codec.
The goal of this new implementation is to focus on speed and
maintainability.

Two libraries will be developed in ANSI C, one for decoding of the Dirac
video codec and for for encoding.

You can find out more about the project here:
http://schrodinger.sourceforge.net

As part of this project we will also make sure the Dirac video codec can
be contained in the Ogg container format and work with Xiph.org to
ensure that this mapping is acceptable to the Xiph community.

The code is not yet in a working state, but interested people are
suggested to join the mailing list or check out development as it
proceeds in our Subversion repository.

Working with BBC and Fluendo on this project is David Schleef, who is
also the primary author of the liboil optimization library.

This message is meant as a notice for interested parties, a more formal
announcement will be made once the project is further along.

Christian


So the goal of this project is to develop an usable implementation of Dirac, really interesting.
I don't know how Dirac has been progressing (I tested it about a year ago), but anyway is always good to see that a patent-free video codec is getting better.

[Sirber]

I'm not sure if using Ogg will make much people happy...

[savage747]

I'm not sure if using Ogg will make much people happy...

It surely will be possible to use the new encoder implementation with another container.

Fluendo is a streaming company already having Ogg streaming (Theora + Vorbis and Theora + Speex) working. Dirac + Vorbis/Speex inside Ogg therefore is a logical choice.

Edit: confused Fluendo (the company) with Cortado (their streaming applet).

[Sirber]

The first post didn't mention Cortado :confused:

[savage747]

The first post didn't mention Cortado :confused:

I screwed up. I confused Cortado (the Java streaming applet by Fluendo) with Fluendo itself. Eeeek.

[CruNcher]

Now with Fluendo activley supporting Dirac in optimization as they did with Theora before, Dirac really could become the Next Generation Open Source Patent Free Video Compression that could even stand against the Quality of H.264 and VC1 :)

[Sirber]

What did they do for theora?

[Doom9]

let's not get ahead of ourselves.. Theora doesn't look nice at all, Dirac has major bugs and is dog slow.. x264 is a couple galaxies ahead right now and it won't be easy to ever catch up.

[CruNcher]

@Sirber
they buildup a whole Streaming Ecosystem for it wich is reliable and also did optimization work and are into the Gstreamer framework and Video Editing stuff for it.
And im not suprised that they took up Dirac now and will bring it into this Ecosystem in an Enhanced and Optimized form.
Actually you could say Fluendo works on bringing us a complete Open Sourced Multimedia Platform for Desktop Linux that's reliable and useable in many ways be it for Video Editing or Streaming. And Linux is realy moving forward in that regards, i personaly follow alot of Video projects on it that make big steps and are even up to bring allready Broadcaster Quality in your Homes for free. And there is still alot to come it's really amazing to see all this grewing up :)

[deXtoRious]

On a non-serious sidenote, what is it with their obsession with quantum physicists? ;) Not that it's a bad thing in any way, it's just that I happen to be interested in the field and this caught my eye.

P.S. Best of luck to these guys. I'm not really holding my breath for huge successes or anything here, but competition breeds quality more often than not and some non-commercial competition sure wouldn't hurt.

[Rash]

let's not get ahead of ourselves.. Theora doesn't look nice at all, Dirac has major bugs and is dog slow.. x264 is a couple galaxies ahead right now and it won't be easy to ever catch up.
The only thing that makes me deeply sad is that I don't find much x246 (or H.264) encoded videos in the internet. :(

[diogen]

The only thing that makes me deeply sad is that I don't find much x246 (or H.264) encoded videos in the internet. :(
And you probably won't for another 6 months or so.
Hardware professional solutions aside, it is slow. The ends don't justify the means.
I think as soon as ATI's AVIVO (and soon NVidia) cut "decent quality" encoding time 2-3 times
(thru efficient microcode and/or hardware GPU assist), we'll see more of it.

By then we might not have any source of legal hidef material to apply those new tools to (due to DRM) - but that's another story.

Just my $.02
Diogen.

[Isochroma]

Oh we will have some hidef sources to apply them to...

pouring down upon our heads
to show upon our brand-new SEDs
mpeg-2 transport streams encoding dreams
inciting riots and popcorn-choking screams
from satellite to cable'd light
the bitrate will always be just short of right
to see the twinkling stardust of darkest night.