Firm quietly boosts H.264 streaming license fees from $100,000 up to staggering $4.5 million — backbone codec of the internet gets meteoric increase, AVC hikes

Firm quietly boosts H.264 streaming license fees from $100,000 up to staggering $4.5 million — backbone codec of the internet gets meteoric increase, AVC hikes

Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist.\u00a0 Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.\u00a0 ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-19/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Luke James Social Links Navigation Contributor Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.

usertests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Video_Coding#Versions Version 20 (Edition 8): (April 13, 2013) Amendment to specify additional color space identifiers (including support of ITU-R Recommendation BT.2020 for UHDTV) and an additional model type in the tone mapping information SEI message. Version 25 (Edition 12): (April 13, 2017) Amendment to specify the Progressive High 10 profile, hybrid log–gamma (HLG), and additional color-related VUI code points and SEI messages. Must be why they kept updating H.264 from release in 2003 to 2024! Reply

chaos215bar2 usertests said: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Video_Coding#Versions Must be why they kept updating H.264 from release in 2003 to 2024! Sure, but what portion if any of those updates is actually patentable? (In a way that holds up in court, anyway.) Simply adding metadata to cover new color space specifications isn't exactly much of an innovation. Seems to me all this move must be a reaction to Dolby suddenly deciding to assert patents over AV1 8 years after its release, but that only works if Dolby's claims actually survive a court case — which itself seems unlikely given the scrutiny AV1 was given during development. Otherwise all this does if push people away from H.264 even faster, while essentially guaranteeing that any companies not already licensed do not implement support until patents fully expire. Reply

Notton "Avanci's Video pool and Access Advance's Video Distribution Patent pool are both now seeking content royalties from streaming services for the use of HEVC, VVC, VP9, and AV1" I thought VP9 and AV1 were royalty-free? In fact, my next line was Bold choice, considering AV1 is royalty-free Reply

orbatos chaos215bar2 said: Sure, but what portion if any of those updates is actually patentable? (In a way that holds up in court, anyway.) Simply adding metadata to cover new color space specifications isn't exactly much of an innovation. Seems to me all this move must be a reaction to Dolby suddenly deciding to assert patents over AV1 8 years after its release, but that only works if Dolby's claims actually survive a court case — which itself seems unlikely given the scrutiny AV1 was given during development. Otherwise all this does if push people away from H.264 even faster, while essentially guaranteeing that any companies not already licensed do not implement support until patents fully expire. Exactly, this is just a cash grab as h264 looses market share, trying to piggyback on Dolby's patent trolling. Companies should be fined into the ground for this kind of behaviour. Reply

orbatos Notton said: "Avanci's Video pool and Access Advance's Video Distribution Patent pool are both now seeking content royalties from streaming services for the use of HEVC, VVC, VP9, and AV1" I thought VP9 and AV1 were royalty-free? In fact, my next line was Bold choice, considering AV1 is royalty-free Why can't people just pay them for the idea of using compression? Won't anyone think of the investors? Reply

usertests Notton said: I thought VP9 and AV1 were royalty-free? In fact, my next line was Bold choice, considering AV1 is royalty-free Sisvel and more recently Avanci have gone after AV1 use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1#Patent_claims Reply

chaos215bar2 usertests said: Sisvel and more recently Avanci have gone after AV1 use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1#Patent_claims And that's the problem with software patents. Rather than incentivizing innovation, all they really do is make it impossible for smaller players to enter the market, because even if you're not actually infringing, it may easily cost tens of millions to defend against a case like this. Not to mention that a significant portion of software patents just cover obvious developments anyone trying to implement some given tech would have come up with. Think the whole Apple Watch blood oxygen fiasco, where the workaround ended up being simply to not show the results on the watch. Why is the idea of "do this thing we already know how to do, but on a watch" worth granting a 20-year monopoly over? Reply

cemkalyoncu This is why open source systems are important. Instead of paying billions, pay a fraction of it to support opensource ecosystem. Reply

Beltrano Admin said: Via LA, the patent pool administrator for H.264/AVC, restructured its streaming license fees earlier this year, replacing a flat $100,000 annual cap with a tiered system. Firm quietly boosts H.264 streaming license fees from $100,000 up to staggering $4.5 million — backbone codec of the internet gets meteoric increas… : Read more So ACER is now MSI? I'm intrigued to know their relation. Reply

d0x360 This is genuinely crazy and quite honestly at this point everybody should be switching to Av1 anyways. Reply

Key considerations

  • Investor positioning can change fast
  • Volatility remains possible near catalysts
  • Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows

Reference reading

More on this site

Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.

Leave a Comment