Google wants to take on Dolby with new open media formats

Re:Google wants to take on Dolby with new open media formats by anigbrowl on Thursday September 22, 2022 @03:05PM (#32943269)

That's a good counter-argument which I agree with. I was looking at the issue in terms of voluntary consumer behavior (visiting theaters, buying TV or hifi equipment) and industrial supply rather than public good considerations. Where limited resources are allocated by government as (ideally) neutral broker we should certainly prefer openness.

There is an argument for patent protection as innovation motivator, but lockup periods are more likely to lead to runaway market dominance due to preferential attachment. Where there's a monospony (like government as owner of spectrum) that's probably going to lead to negative outcomes.

Thanks for widening my perspective on that issue.

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Re:Google wants to take on Dolby with new open media formats by ajdude on Thursday September 22, 2022 @07:33PM (#32946018)

I’m kind of directly affected by this as a consumer, as I am a big user of Plex, but can no longer receive sound with my antenna television if I run it through Plex.

This is because ATSC3.0 requires Plex to secure licensing for AC-4 audio in order to process the sound, which they legally haven’t been able to do yet.

Unfortunately, my reception is significantly better via ATSC3.0, yet I’m left waiting and unable to utilize it.

https://forums.plex.tv/t/atsc3-0-broadcast-and-ac-4-sound/64...

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Re:Google wants to take on Dolby with new open media formats by d110af5ccf on Thursday September 22, 2022 @07:56PM (#32946194)

It looks like there are some ffmpeg forks that include patches supporting AC-4 but they haven't been merged upstream yet. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/8349

Not that it changes anything. Proprietary formats have no place in such government specifications. But possibly a relevant ffmpeg build could help you do what you wanted to.

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