MPEG Industry Forum

M4IF's 11th meeting is this week - Fri 13 and Sat 14 Dec 2023 on Awaji Island, Japan, which is very close to Osaka's Kansai International airport. See Agenda and Logistics. Members should have registered already, but can still do so. Also non-members wishing to sample one meeting can still get access if they intend to join: contact M4IF's Executive Director, Paul Ritchie, before he leaves for Japan on Wednesday.

Below goes last week's news digest. Quite a bit of news for the usually slow December month - M4IF is keeping you posted, but then again, we had BroadbandPlus last week, and Streaming Media Europe.

Best Regards,

Rob Koenen
President, M4IF

MPEG-4 News

Magis shows three-chip 5-GHz wireless video link [EE Times, 05 Dec 02] - Magis sees interest from MPEG-4 manufacturers
The Matrix - coming to a mobile phone near you [ZDNet UK, 05 Dec 02] - Streaming to cell phones at Streaming Media Europe
RealNetworks prepares more source code releases [ZDNet UK, 05 Dec 02] - With some FUD on MPEG-4's quality. Not in the article: independent developers of MPEG-4 codecs are rapidly optimizing the coding quality. The interesting part is that there are many competing developers, all trying to squeeze out the last bit. Exactly the mechanism that drove MPEG-2's bitrate down considerably.
PlayStation 2 to tune into cable TV [CNET, 04 Dec 02] - "BroadQ's QCast Tuner software for the PS2 allows the game machine to play MPEG-4 and DivX video and MP3 music files."
Pace Showcases Breadth of Cable Solutions at Broadband Plus [Pace, 03 Dec 02] - Pace Micro's IP400 supports MPEG-4
EE Times In Focus on Wireless Multimedia [EE Times, 02 Dec 02] - has several articles that feature MPEG-4:
- Memory cards support portable video
- Wireless home multimedia networks require multiple design strategies
- Reconfigurable arrays of processors needed for wireless multimedia
- Wireless multimedia: questions, few answers
Archos Jukebox stores MPEG-4 video [TechTV, 02 Dec 02] and Archos' Jukebox: Multimedia Goes Mobile [EE Times, 27 Nov 02] - more reviews of this interesting MM jukebox
TI and UB Video get a jump on H.264 decoding [EE Times, 02 Dec 02] - Informative article about MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding / H.264, which wrongly suggests that the new coder is a competitor to MPEG-4. MPEG-4 is a multimedia framework, and MPEG-4 AVC will be a part of MPEG-4
Dark horse DivX gains on QuickTime [Australian IT, 03 Dec 02] - Rather than seeing competing products, you can also see them as mutually reinforcing. This is the power of having a standard.
Patent holders on the ropes [News.com, 02 Dec 02] - Analysis of the role of patents in standards.

MPEG-4 Press Releases

A suite of new products from Sorenson and many BroadbandPlus-related announcements, from Envivio, iVAST, Pinnacle. Also a claim for the world's first MPEG-4 Webcast, and late ISMA find.

radioio, Limelight Use Apple QuickTime to Deliver Industry's 1st MPEG-4 Radio Webcast [radioio, 06 Dec 02]
Pinnacle Systems StreamFactory Version 2.5 Supports MPEG-4 And RealVideo 9 [Pinnacle Systems, 05 Dec 02]
Internet Streaming Media Alliance Announces New Membership Initiatives [ISMA, 21 Nov 02]
e-BOX Unveils End-to-End MPEG-4 Architecture for Cable Networks at Broadband Plus ... [iVAST, 03 Dec 02]
Envivio, Nagravision Partner to Demonstrate 1st MPEG-4/ISMA Content Protection Solution [Envivio, 03 Dec 02]
MPEG-4 Audio Licensing Committee Selects Via Licensing Corp. as Administrator [Via Licensing, 02 Dec 02]
Sorenson Media Annouces Sorenson Squeeze 3 for MPEG-4 [Sorenson Media, 02 Dec 02]
Sorenson Media Desktop Encoding with Sorenson Squeeze 3 Compression Suite [Sorenson Media, 02 Dec 02]
Alphamosaic processor fits next-gen mobile phones [EE Times Asia, 27 Nov 02]

MPEG-4 Events

07-08 Jan 03 Storage Visions, Las Vegas, US - What is MPEG-4's role in the home media hubs? Find out at Storage Visions. Discount for M4IF members applies .
09 Jan 03 MPEG-4 Birds of a Feather @ Macworld
10 Jan 03 MPEG-4 in 03, Macworld
27-31 Jan 03 MPEG-4 Seminar Series by KNK Seminars
30 Jan-01 Feb 03 NY Digital Video Show - with MPEG-4 session including showcase. 20% discount for M4IF members.
1-14 Feb 03 Graphite 2003, Melbourne
5-10 Apr 03 NAB 2003, Las Vegas