From: Tom Whore (tomwhore@inetarena.com)
Date: Mon May 15 2000 - 09:29:25 PDT
Form Ars Techinca (http://www.ars-technica.com)
The EETimes is reporting that major cable TV powers are likely to choose
MPEG 4.0 as their streaming format of choice, over and against closed
solutions. Here's a gem from AT&T Broadband VP of Advanced Technology:
[We] need two things: standardization on streaming media codecs and
digital rights management. We [at AT&T] feel it's absolutely necessary
for the industry to standardize on MPEG-4 and leave the holy war among
RealPlayer, Windows Media Player and QuickTime behind.
Werd. Interesting, the rumor that MPEG4 is "based on QuickTime" is, of
course, false. The file format for MPEG4 is based on QuickTime, but the
Codec et alia is not. But wouldn't you know there's something else of
interest with MPEG4. Unlike MPEG2 which is frame-based, MPEG4 is object
based, and interactive. The stream can be customized and changed on the
fly, meaning that TV can be personalized, and of course, advertising can
become more demographically targeted. So, in 5 years when you're watching
European soccer from the US, the ads along the side lines could be for
shops in your neighborhood. Yeah for Technology.
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