[M4IF News] MPEG-4 Visual 2001 edition available from ISO

[Rob Koenen]

MPEG-4 Visual 2001 edition is now available from ISO. See www.m4if.org
for a link to ISO's website. 
This edition bundles what is known as version 1, version 2 and corrigenda. 
Studio Profile and the Streaming Video Profiles (Advanced Simple and Fine 
Granular Scalability) are NOT in this version.
The streaming video profile can be bought in FDIS version from ISO,
send mail to mailto:sales   iso.ch
The FDIS is word-for-word the same as the final International Standard the 
ISO will publish in a couple of weeks.
On another note, Forrester published a brief on MPEG-4 today, available 
for subscribers to their research service.
http://www.forrester.com/ER/Research/Brief/0,1317,14073,00.html
The basic message (quoting the summary)
"
 RealNetworks' support of MPEG-4 signals growing industry support for 
 the new multimedia standard. But MPEG-4 adoption is a long-term 
 process -- there will be little MPEG-4 Internet streaming in the next 
 three years.
"
While I agree with the Brief's basic analysis of the strenghts and usages
of MPEG-4, I think hat recent developments wshow that 3 years is way too 
pessimistic. Once the licensing issues are 
settled - and I still count on licensing for MPEG-4 Visual to commence 
in January, many products will be released.
Best,
Rob Koenen