Just on the the whole 'better video codecs' thing. I will be brutal and say that gnomemeeting will only every be a 'voip client that can also basic video' until there are better video codecs. h263 at the last, h264 to be a bit more modern, and theora to be 'open source'
We cannot afford to wait until Craig and Robert implement video plugin codecs. This might never happen. While on the subject: gstreamer is gaining rtp packetisation abilities. Perhaps gstreamer could help implement codecs in gnomemeeting? Or perhaps even video codecs? gstreamer is lgpl. On Thu, 2005-12-08 at 15:42 +0100, Conrad Beckert wrote: > Hi Damien, > > > Patents are not on the code, they are on the technics, so it is certainly > > not legal, > > at least in the US. In Europe, it is still a bit "vague". > Fortunately, the EU-parliament rejected the proposal for computer implemented > inventions in July 2005. That happened after long struggle and intense > lobbying by civil liberty groups such as e.g the http://www.ffii.org/ To keep > our freedom, we have to use it to show that it is valuable :-) Otherwise we > will loose it sooner or later. > > The codec issue is a rather big one when it comes to videoconferencing, since > 1- Image quality H.261 is inferior to what the usual suspects the e.g. > Messengers have to offer. > 2- most SIP User Agents like e.g. xten, wengophone or the Java > sip-communicatior don't support H.261 anymore - so you can't issue a video > call from/to these clients using Gnomemeeting > - the same goes for hardware phones / conference systems > 3- as someone on this mailing list mentioned and I was told by a person > related to deaf/hearing impaired people: it's hard to "talk" in sign language > over it (but this is actually a nice application for video telephony.) > > > However, there is a licensing problem. x264 is GPL, and OPAL/OPENH323 ... > > x264 should add an exception clause for OpenH323/OPAL in their license. > Well, ffmpeg is LGPL which means that you can link it as a library. Check out > ther legal pages http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/legal.php > > Having compiled ffmpeg a while ago, I remember, that there is a "GPL" compile > option which means, that it disables all codecs which are non LGPL compatiple. > I wonder what's the case with H.263 (which would be a quantum leap to have it- > though it's not 264) > > I also wonder how the Wengo guys and java sip-communicator folks solved their > legal problems concerning 263. (these are open source projects as well - some > GPL) > > Another idea, which would solve point 1 and 3 but not 2 above: use Theora. > Check this out: http://www.tipic.com/tipicim - it's an open source Video > Jabber messenger using Theora as video codec. Perhaps opal/Gnomemeeting could > benefit. This would do to video what Speex did for audio - a decent free > codec. > > > Greetings > Conrad > > > > -- > > _ Damien Sandras > > (o- > > // GnomeMeeting: http://www.gnomemeeting.org/ > > v_/_ FOSDEM 2006 : http://www.fosdem.org > > SIP Phone : sip:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > sip:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > _______________________________________________ > > GnomeMeeting-list mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnomemeeting-list > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > GnomeMeeting-list mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnomemeeting-list _______________________________________________ GnomeMeeting-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnomemeeting-list
