I have been going over the MPEG-LA writings on the web, and find no convincing argument that you can release a decoder for free. You can distribute videos for free, but if you sell them, or distribute an encoder or decoder you are apparently liable for fees if you sell > 100K units per year.
A quote from: http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Documents/avcweb.pdf <quote> MPEG-LA online summary of terms: AVC/H.264 License Terms Codec Manufacture and Sale o Products sold to end users and OEM for PC but not part of OS (decoder, encoder or product consisting of one decoder and one encoder = “unit”) o 0 - 100,000 units/year = no royalty (available to one legal entity in an affiliated group) o US $0.20 per unit after first 100,000 units/year o Above 5 million units/year, royalty = US $0.10 per unit o Enterprise cap: $3.5M per year 2005-2006, $4.25M per year 2007-08, $5M per year 2009-10, $6.5Mper year 2011-2015; $8.125M in 2016 and $9.75M per year in 2017 through 2020 </quote> This amounts to $20,000 us as soon as you exceed the minimum. Also note that AAC audio codec that is normally used with H.264 is a separate, and apparently more expensive license, Although I have not read about that as much. http://www.via-corp.com/licensing/aac/licensefees.html http://www.via-corp.com/licensing/aac/faq.html Steve Schilz PASCO scientific - think science On Mon July 18, Steve Schilz Wrote: > Thiago, Allan, Thanks for responding. > > Probably complicated indeed! Qt in general does a pretty great job of > shielding us from lots of complexity. > I need to look into the ?Free for decoding? part more carefully, as that is > my immediate need. > It seemed worth mentioning, and certainly imho makes QWebEngine all the more > attractive if it could be made to work. > > On Weds July 16: Allan SandField Jensen Wrote: >>Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2016 19:21:16 +0200 >>From: Allan Sandfeld Jensen <k...@carewolf.com<mailto:k...@carewolf.com>>> >>To: development@qt-project.org<mailto:development@qt-project.org> >>>Subject: Re: [Development] QWebEngine - H.264 playback, proprietary codecs. >> > >That sounds a bit complicated, since it needs to hook into Chromiums media >>backend and have a download mechanism. >> >>Note activating it the codecs is not a matter of cost. AFAIK the h.264 and >>h.265 codecs are currently patented but royalty free to decode. This makes it >>possible for our customers to activate them without paying anyway. This is >>however just the status quo, and I am not sure I want to risk enabling >>something that might make the open-source package something that you need to >>pay for in the future, which is why we prefer to stick with the same codecs >>Google makes available in their free open source browser Chromium. >> >>I would be more interested in making it easier to enable, or maybe offer >>somehow. It is just something we have to make sure we offer without >>guaranteeing it is and will remain free. >> >>Allan On Wednesday 13 July 2016, Steve Schilz wrote: >>>We are using QWebEngine to drive a hybrid app (Html5 + Javascript + C++) on >>>windows. According to QWebEngineFeatures Doc, >>>http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtwebengine-features.html#pepper-plugin-api You must >>>pass a flag to qmake, WEBENGINE_CONFIG+=use_proprietary_codecs, and build >>>Qt from source yourself in order to support h.264 video decoding. >>> >>>In researching this, I became aware that Cisco provides a downloadable >>>binary codec, where Cisco pays the MPEG-LA royalties. Apparently this is >>>the method used To provide h.264 playback in Firefox. If you watch the >>>intellectual property rights video at >>>http://vimeo.com/cullenfluffyjennings/openh264-ipr, they explain why they >>>Did this, and how you can even make changes to the codec via open source >>>if needed. >>> >>>Would it make sense for QWebEngine to support this codec, in order to be >>>able to provide ?out of the box? (via download at end user?s computer), >>>support for h.264 playback in <video> tags? _______________________________________________ Development mailing list Development@qt-project.org http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/development
