多媒体格式专利费参考标准

Multimedia Standards Licensing Fee

Introduction

This document outlines licensing costs and contact information for major multimedia standards and technology in use and in future use that is of interest to companies building next generation multimedia products. Most licensing facts are referring to patent pools. Additional costs would be high quality encoder and potentially decoder implementations.

Most multimedia standards algorithms are asymmetrical. In other words, the encoders require much more processing power and are much more complex both algorithmically as well as computationally. This is due to the concept that encoder would be used on servers, in professional broadcast system in professional movie studio authoring tools; applications where the costs of encoding did not impact the delivery mechanism or cost to consumers. Finally, in most standards, except for AC-3, the encoder is not normative. In other words, companies and individuals are allowed to design the worse encoding technology possible as long as the algorithm generates a compliant bitstream. The highest quality encoder designs are often created by the very companies with patents in the various MPEG standards. The main point of this discussion is to note the high variance in encoder technology quality and to also be aware that individual implementations of coders, should they be deemed necessary for this product will have additional licensing and fee costs. Standards

Each Standard is given a brief description, applications where it is in use, licensing terms and contact information. Gnu Public License or any sort of algorithm or application that does not require payment is not addressed in this document. Also not discussed are Real Networks formats or other lesser “player” technologies in the Internet Media space.

AUDIO

A.MPEG1/2, Layer III (MP3)

1.Type

MPEG1/2, layer III is a spectrum audio lossy compression algorithm. Asymmetric encode and decode with a computational complexity ratio of 15:1. Compression Ratio 12:1. 128kb/s stereo for 44.1 or 48kHz sampling rate is a typical bitrate in this technology.

2.Description

Ubiquitous, MP3 is “The Internet standard” as well as port able player standard. Cons: very poor performance on speech signals, quality varies greatly depending upon implementation. MPEG1, Layer III performs poorly in tandeming. MPEG1 layer III is antiquated technology that is over 10 years old in the field of audio compression research. Many different MPEG1-layer III encoders and compression tools are available via the Internet, thus quality varies from extremely good quality to encoders that will not even produce a proper bitstream.

3.Content

Illegal copying of content launched MP3 and today one can find almost anything available in free download using peer-to-peer software Kazaa in MP3 format. NO Media service that does not support MP3 could be located in Q3/03.

B.MP3Pro

1.Type

MP3Pro in architecture consists of modifications to the MPEG1-Layer III algorithm that add one additional DSP module. This module, called SBR, reconstructs high frequency spectrum after decoding. This piece of