I have literally no understanding of video codecs, standards etc. Is there a "set and forget" option which is free and good?
this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
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H264 is almost universally playable and transcodable by nearly everything on earth.
But non-free?
Never cared. I'm one of those people that would indeed download a car.
God I wish
That depends on where you live. In many parts of the world, software patents don't exist and aren't applied.
Commercial use requires payment to patent holders, free use does not (whenever end user does not pay to watch). I dont know how ad supported streams are categorized, probably commercial. For personal use, I wouldnt worry about the license. Worry when you start a streaming server and start making revenue.
No, e.g. the package x264 from videolan.org is free software (FOSS) with GPL2+ licence.
It is also illegal in most places beside France
Not enforced so you should use it but it is technically illegal. Same thing with Linux distros shipping anything under patent.
I think you're mixing the libdvdcss library for playing protected DVDs or referring to some other non-free, patented codec with the x264 package implementation of the H.264 codec, which the patent holders allowed to be used freely for non-commercial use.
cries in core 2 duo
Wasn't Theora the set-and-forget free option? Don't recall if it had the "good" part tho.
How would the patents expiring help the common man?
And free and open source software can be written, shared and used without potentially getting sued. And these projects power lots of things.
To be fair, this is mainly a US issue. VLC (French) has provided h264 encoders and decoders for years.
I mean ffmpeg, GStreamer etc also provide the encoders and decoders. That doesn't make it legal. I think they're all (including VLC) threatened by software patents. But you're right. There are differences between the EU and other jurisdictions.
Because patents cause issues for free software. Some examples:
The devices implementing the patented codecs may become cheaper.
They won't.
That's absurd. This crap is pennies. $30 kid toys pay 264. The codec was commidized nearly a decade ago.
Oh you sweet child.