Re: [rtcweb] Congratuiations on the Cisco announcement - but we still prefer VP8

[Ron <[e-mail]>]

On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 07:47:31PM +0100, Harald Alvestrand wrote:
> We congratulate Cisco on their intention to make an open source H.264 codec
> available and usable by the community. We look forward to seeing the result
> of this effort.
> 
> Google still believes that VP8 - a freely available, fully open,
> high-quality video codec that you can download, compile for your platform,
> include in your binary, distribute and put into production today - is the
> best choice of a Mandatory to Implement video codec for the WebRTC effort.

This is my belief also.

While the Cisco announcement is certainly an interesting approach to trying
to extricate their existing technology investment from the deep quagmire of
encumbrances that currently bind it, the result still falls well short of
not only the ideal, but also the already existing alternative choices that
we have available to us.

Given the choice between a genuinely Free option, that anyone is free to
improve and distribute however they wish - and a no-cost binary-only option
that is available from only a single supplier, while Happy Hour lasts - the
decision still seems to be something of a no-brainer.  Even before you also
consider that the Free Option is not constrained to only its lowest possible
performance mode in the implementation that is available to people today.

VP8 still seems like the only obvious and enduring choice for an MTI codec
for WebRTC at present.

  Ron