Panasonic Launches BD-ROM Authoring Service in the US (MPEG-4) (1 Viewer)

[Jeff(R)]

Good news for those unhappy with MPEG2 titles.

Panasonic Launches BD-ROM Authoring Service in the US
Thursday June 22, 11:01 am ET

New MPEG-4 AVC Encoder and Blu-ray-Java Authoring System Expedite Production of Blu-ray Titles with 1080p-quality Pictures and Advanced Interactivity


http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060622/nyth096.html?.v=60

 

[Edwin-S]

Looks like things are starting to roll. Now all we need to see is some actual product released that will live up to the hype. The next few months could prove to be very interesting.

 

[Sean Bryan]

That's nice to hear.

Though I'm curious why they didn't mention VC-1. One would hope that an authoring service would offer both advanced codes as options (in addition to MPEG-2).

 

[Lew Crippen]

Don’t forget that you need two separate licenses for VC-1 and MPEG4. This in addition to making the toolkit harder to develop, maintain and debug.

 

[Chris S]

I hear a lot about Microsoft and VC-1 licensing but not too much about MPEG4. So I did a little research, and for those interested in MPEG4 licensing, I found the following via wikipedia.org

 

[Sean Bryan]

Sure. But still, I would think a professional authoring service would/should be able to offer whatever a potential customer wants to use. If there are three codecs that are part of HD DVD and BD, then a professional authoring service should be able to use all three.

Having said that, if AVC performs as well as VC-1 has, and has the potential to continue to improve (as Microsoft's Amir says VC-1 can) then it's no big deal for us either way.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Just a thought, but since there a HD-DVD authoring kit already exists, this company may be targeting a niche that is not yet filled. In that case, they would be correct in spending all of their resource on what is not available anywhere else.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Great news!