No, I do not believe there are any royalties for playback of Windows Media files. REALbasic includes built-in support for Windows Media Player from their MoviePlayer control. The MoviePlayer control accesses the ActiveX version of Windows Media Player, which I believe is already installed on people's PCs if they already installed Windows Media Player. Microsoft offers the API documentation for .Net, VB, and any other development tool that can access the Windows Media Player API.
Usually, only the creation or saving of proprietary file formats is when licensing or royalties come into play. Unisys used to have a patent on the GIF format and they went after developers whose applications saved files as GIFs. There's also a patent out there for MP3, which requires a royalty for encoding/creating MP3 files. Awhile back, Forgent was actively pursuing developers for apps that save JPEG files. I know their JPEG patent came into question, so I'm not sure what the final verdict on JPEGs are... But if your application only reads or plays those formats, then I do not believe there are any licensing or royalty issues. --Dave on 1/4/07 6:57 PM, Giovanni wrote: > I thought thats what you do. > > I saw u gave an URL to the sdk doc and was hoping you had found better > information on distribution. > > Does MS make app developers pay royalty for playback? > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: "Dave Wooldridge" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "REALbasic NUG" <[email protected]> > Sent: 1/4/2007 6:49 PM > Subject: Re: Opening QuickTime & Windows Media Player files in my project > > Giovanni, > > Not sure what you mean by that... If you're referring to Microsoft's free > version of Flip4Mac QuickTime component, I do NOT include it with Stimulus. > Stimulus users are encouraged to download that component themselves if they > want Windows Media support in QuickTime. So there's no distribution > licensing needed since I don't distribute it with Stimulus. > > --Dave > > > on 1/4/07 6:06 PM, Giovanni wrote: > >> How did you handle the licensing distribution issues? >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: "Dave Wooldridge" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> To: "REALbasic NUG" <[email protected]> >> Sent: 1/4/2007 5:42 PM >> Subject: Re: Opening QuickTime & Windows Media Player files in my project >> >> Actually, Microsoft offers the free Windows Media Component for QuickTime by >> Flip4Mac for Mac OS X (they had acquired the free version from Flip4Mac). >> It can be downloaded free from: >> <http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx> >> >> That solves playing Windows Media files using RB's QuickTime movie player >> control in Mac applications. >> >> As for playing both Windows Media files and QuickTime-compatible files in >> Windows applications, this is what I did in the Windows version of Stimulus: >> >> (1) -- First my code determines what filetype the selected media file is. >> >> (2) -- If its a filetype that will play via QuickTime, then I set the Movie >> Player control's PlayerType property to 1 (QuickTime). If its a Windows >> Media file, then I set the MoviePlayer's PlayerType property to 2 (Windows >> Media Player). >> >> (3) -- If you have a media file whose filetype that is compatible with >> either QuickTime or Windows Media Player, I usually opt to play it with >> QuickTime since RB's MoviePlayer control is the most reliable with QuickTime >> as its PlayerType (in my humble opinion). I found that the best way to >> control the Windows Media Player (via the Movie Player control) is to access >> the methods and properties of the Windows Media API via the Movie Player >> Control. Here's the URL to Microsoft's online docs: >> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/wmpsdk11/m >> mp_sdk/windowsmediaplayerobjectmodelreference.asp> >> >> Brian, before you ask... >> Stimulus is a commercial application, so unfortunately, I'm not at liberty >> to share the above mentioned code with you since it represents a huge chunk >> of functionality. >> >> But I have been thinking about rolling that Windows Media and QuickTime >> functionality into an easy to use encrypted RB class. If anyone's >> interested, send me an email offlist, so I can gauge the level of interest. >> >> Regards, >> Dave Wooldridge >> Electric Butterfly >> http://www.ebutterfly.com >> >> ------------------------------------- >> MY EMAIL ADDRESS HAS CHANGED: >> Please delete [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> from your Contacts. Use my NEW email: >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> ------------------------------------- >> >> >> on 1/4/07 5:18 PM, William Squires wrote: >> >>> What platform? Windows or Mac? If you're going to be running on >>> Mac, have you tried Flip4Mac which allows QuickTime to player WMV >>> files (up to version 9, 10 has some DRM stuff which renders it >>> unplayable on Mac as MS hasn't seen fit to release WMP 10 for Mac) >>> Otherwise, I'm not sure how you would pull this off without WMV >>> codecs for QuickTime... and there isn't a "WMVPlayer" control in >>> REALbasic that I know of. >>> Note that Flip4Mac (http://www.flip4mac.com) isn't free, but isn't >>> that expensive if you just want to play WMV files under QuickTime; >>> it's somewhat pricier if you want to edit it though. >>> >>> >>> On Jan 4, 2007, at 7:01 PM, Brian Heibert wrote: >>> >>>> I am building a media player application >>>> >>>> I want to open a >>>> 1) QuickTime Movie File >>>> 2) Windows Media Movie File >>>> >>>> How would I go about doing that? >>>> Do I need to know the file type(s) and creator code(s)? >>>> or any kind of file extension? If so what are they? >>>> >>>> I got a Movie player control in my project >>>> >>>> Brian >>>> > > _______________________________________________ > Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: > <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> > > Search the archives of this list here: > <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html> > > _______________________________________________ > Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: > <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> > > Search the archives of this list here: > <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html> _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> Search the archives of this list here: <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html>
