MPEG2????

A bit strange to have to purchase a per-RPi licence to decode MPEG2; what's the thinking behind that?

Reply to
Gareth's Downstairs Computer
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Reply to
A. Dumas

I see. Thanks.

As it seems to be a software issue only, then it's up to us to write our own decoders (for our own private use)

Reply to
Gareth's Downstairs Computer

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Chris Elvidge, England
Reply to
Chris Elvidge

On a sunny day (Tue, 22 May 2018 14:33:43 +0100) it happened Chris Elvidge wrote in :

With that reasoning / attitude there would not be Linux. The key (I have bought 2 for 2 raspis) seems to activate the HARDWARE mpeg2 decoder, that gives you increased decoding speed = more fps in playback. For the rest mplayer (based on ffmpeg AFAIK) already has most soft decoders, sources available. All done for free by a zillion people working on it, I personally added some feature to ffplay. ffmpeg wil happely re-code one format to the other, and I think fixing an audio video delay is no issue, I also have done that with my own code (time stamp).

I do not know why omxplayer is the only player supporting that hardware decode, the rapi org club should really provide drivers for mplayer and xine. omxplayer is an irritating piece of shit written by somebody who cannot display an other error message than 'have a nice day' and then exit. programmed by some idiot it seems. It does play, but keys or not, I do not use raspies as mediaplayer (tried it). My TV has an 1 GB harddisk connected to it, when needed I recode on the PC to the right size and format with ffmpeg, and put it on that disk.

You can probably hack the key but you are right: not worth the time. ;-)

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

The thinking /was/ that MPEG2 was (at the time) a patented technology that required a licence from the MPEGLA to use, and that /some/ Raspberry-pi users wanted software to decode MPEG2 for their Pi-based media players. The Raspberry-Pi organization, financially unable to purchase a blanket licence for all RPis, came up with a compromise to keep the Pi legal; a per-RPi MPEG2 licence, that the end-user could purchase through the Raspberry Pi organization, that tied the mpeg2 decoder software to a specific raspberry pi processor.[1]

*BUT*, since February, 2018, MPEG2 has lost all it's patent protection[2] (within the US; it may still have patents elsewhere), and the MPEGLA no longer has the legal right to demand licences for mpeg2 decoders (again, in the US; it may be different elsewhere). [1]
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[2]
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HTH

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Lew Pitcher 
"In Skills, We Trust" 
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Reply to
Lew Pitcher

On a sunny day (Tue, 22 May 2018 14:11:14 GMT) it happened Jan Panteltje wrote in :

Ooops

1 TB actually.
Reply to
Jan Panteltje

Being retired, having nothing to do all day, and all day to do it in, several man-years.

Reply to
Gareth's Downstairs Computer

Linux is noting to with being free as in beer. See:

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Even if I know free software to exist, I may still prefer to pay if that makes it easier to find what I need and possibly easier to use. I use several commercial programs where I know there are sevweral free alternatives that give just as good results.

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Reply to
Axel Berger

On a sunny day (Tue, 22 May 2018 17:07:01 +0200) it happened Axel Berger wrote in :

The work I have put in over the years, countless hours, was for free for those who use it. YES it has EVERYTHING to do with free as in beer.

There are some companies that use it primarely to make money, deliberately create incompatibilities in the kernel, in the compiler, Rathead comes to mind.

Yes, charging for distribution is OK, but IMNSHO only as long as you do not create your own little incompatible version just to keep market share.

Of course some do that anyways.. Distribution can be free too, as available on the net for download (many distros),. kernel.org etc etc.

Over the years (started with SLS Linux in 1998) I wrote many applications, some because there was no application for Linux that was as good as the MS windows ones, some because those simply did not exist at all. This was especially true when digital TV came. There is a whole lot of DTV related stuff on my site for download, both audio, video and subtitles related. Some of that code, from feedback I get, made it into other open source projects. There is exactly ONE program that I had running under wine (windows emulator) in Linux, but on the later versions of wine it crashed my Linux system, so now NO other application, everything is open source. I like programming, do find it a better way to spend time than watching TV, but I do that too. I did consider once to create a 'Panteltje Linux' but that is a life long workload, moving target, and 99% of the stuff does not interest me anyways, neither do I have the in depth knowledge of all fields (my background is electronics and broadcasting, and some). I write what I need or want to try or test. And it is free. Make money of it in an unfair way, you will be sued. hehe, some joker tried that some years ago, had a big website, every time I announced a feature he was advertising it too. Then I announced an other feature, so did he, but I never implemented it (was for some group and was not needed).. Gone that website, could not deliver. :-) Some things (not Linux related but open source) where used in China and they really made nice things from it, I like that.

Better focus on programming, not on the business aspect.

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

Absolutely. Mine is strictly the customer point of view here. If someone asks a reasonable amount and it's worth that much to me and not worth looking around for hours just to uphold a principle, then that's what I do and he's welcome to it.

And just as with Mercedes motor cars: If something is too expensive for me and I can not or do not want to afford it, then I make do without. I do not go and steal it. The same goes for software and similar.

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Reply to
Axel Berger

The GPU does it but the Raspberry Pi foundation hasn't paid the license fee for it so it's restricted until you pay for the license.

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Brian Gregory (in England).
Reply to
Brian Gregory

On a sunny day (Tue, 22 May 2018 22:39:56 +0200 (CEST)) it happened Nomen Nescio wrote in :

Now that is good news, the more the better.

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

How long is that in bone-idle-fat-troll-years, Gareth?

Reply to
Eye-spi

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