The Fight for Patent-Unencumbered Media Codecs Is Nearly Won

Re:The Fight for Patent-Unencumbered Media Codecs Is Nearly Won by scarface74 on Wednesday January 10, 2018 @10:20AM (#16115498)

The positive affect on large content providers is non existent when they have to support both and negligible as far as cost even when they do.

It doesn't really have an affect on small content producers. I do live streams for a non profit. We pay one time for Wirecast and the Black Magic hardware. Pay a neglible cost to send the livestream to our provider and they broadcast it. iOS users at least can view from the browser using HLS. We also send another stream to Facebook. How does H.264 patents affect us?

You don't have to "consult a lawyer", unless you are creating your own codec. You pay the licensing fee which in the grand scheme of things is lower than all of your other costs - hosting, development tools, internet costs, etc. and you're done.

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Re:The Fight for Patent-Unencumbered Media Codecs Is Nearly Won by vetinari on Wednesday January 10, 2018 @10:58AM (#16115865)

Note that even if H.264 may be free for your use case[1], HEVC is not. For HEVC, you must pay per title or subscriber, if you are content producer.

[1] Which I wouldn't be so sure. Many H.264-using devices come with disclaimer, that they are not licensed for professional use and that you may need your own license. As usual, consult your lawyer. The point of VP9/AV1 is, that this is not necessary.

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