VP6
Encyclopedia
On2 TrueMotion VP6 is a proprietary
lossy video compression format and video codec
. It is an incarnation of the TrueMotion
video codec, a series of video codecs developed by On2 Technologies
. This codec is commonly used by Adobe Flash
, Flash Video, and JavaFX
media files.
In November 2003, On2 announced that VP6 had been chosen as a codec for China's Enhanced Versatile Disc
(EVD), a competitor format to DVD
. Beijing
-based company E-World was to be the exclusive reseller of the EVD VP6 technology in China
, with On2 Technologies earning royalty payments of about $2 USD per player. Then in April 2004 On2 announced that negotiations with E-World had broken down and that On2 would file multiple breach of contract claims against E-World in arbitration proceedings. In March 2005, On2 announced that the arbitrator had dismissed all of On2's claims and had decided that E-World owed nothing to On2. Although E-World included VP6 to its EVD standardization proposal to the Chinese government, it is not clear what, if any, action was then taken by the government. The EVD format initiative appears to be indefinitely stalled.
In November 2003, On2 announced that the VP6 codec will be used in products for broadcasting in the field, such as with BBC
reporters and QuickLink software.
In January 2005, On2 announced a new VP7
codec with better compression capabilities than VP6.
In April 2005, On2 Technologies licensed On2 Video Codec (including VP6 and VP7) for Macromedia Flash. In August 2005, Macromedia
announced they had selected VP6 as the flagship new codec for video playback in the new Flash Player 8.
In March 2006, a VP6 decoder (libvp62) appeared as an open-source project, but was driven underground by On2 on copyright infringement claims.
As of September 2006, an open-source implementation of the decoder is part of the libavcodec
project. VP6 decoder is part of stable version FFmpeg
0.5, released in March 2009. There are some claims that producing or dealing with VP6 video streams inside libavcodec/libavformat is discouraged and/or refused due to clashes between the FFmpeg's developers and On2 technologies by a claim of Intellectual Property and Trade Secrets Infringement made by the corporation itself.
In May 2008, Sun Microsystems
announced it had licensed On2 TrueMotion codecs to add video capabilities to JavaFX
, a family of products for creating Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) across Mobile, Desktop, TV and more. JavaFX uses On2 VP6.
Later incarnations of this codec are VP7
and VP8
. With the Google acquisition of On2, VP8 is licensed as open source. Earlier versions such as VP6 remain unsupported.
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
lossy video compression format and video codec
Video codec
A video codec is a device or software that enables video compression and/or decompression for digital video. The compression usually employs lossy data compression. Historically, video was stored as an analog signal on magnetic tape...
. It is an incarnation of the TrueMotion
TrueMotion
On2 TrueMotion Video Compression is a series of video codecs created by On2 Technologies Inc..- History :According to the company itself, development started in the early 1990s. The first versions of the codec were mainly targeted at and used for full motion video scenes in computer games....
video codec, a series of video codecs developed by On2 Technologies
On2 Technologies
On2 Technologies , formerly known as The Duck Corporation, was a small publicly-traded company , headquartered in Clifton Park, New York, that designs video codec technology. They created a series of video codecs called TrueMotion...
. This codec is commonly used by Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
, Flash Video, and JavaFX
JavaFX
JavaFX is a software platform for creating and delivering rich Internet applications that can run across a wide variety of connected devices....
media files.
Overview
The VP6 codec was introduced in May 2003. In October 2003, On2 officially released its TrueMotion VP6 codec.In November 2003, On2 announced that VP6 had been chosen as a codec for China's Enhanced Versatile Disc
Enhanced Versatile Disc
The Enhanced Versatile Disc is an optical medium-based digital audio/video format, developed to provide a means for playing HDTV content using existing optical media. It was announced on November 18, 2003, by the People's Republic of China's Xinhua News Agency as a response to the popular...
(EVD), a competitor format to DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
-based company E-World was to be the exclusive reseller of the EVD VP6 technology in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, with On2 Technologies earning royalty payments of about $2 USD per player. Then in April 2004 On2 announced that negotiations with E-World had broken down and that On2 would file multiple breach of contract claims against E-World in arbitration proceedings. In March 2005, On2 announced that the arbitrator had dismissed all of On2's claims and had decided that E-World owed nothing to On2. Although E-World included VP6 to its EVD standardization proposal to the Chinese government, it is not clear what, if any, action was then taken by the government. The EVD format initiative appears to be indefinitely stalled.
In November 2003, On2 announced that the VP6 codec will be used in products for broadcasting in the field, such as with BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
reporters and QuickLink software.
In January 2005, On2 announced a new VP7
VP7
TrueMotion VP7 is a video codec developed by On2 Technologies as a successor to earlier efforts such as VP3, VP5 and TrueMotion VP6. It is a codec with both VFW and DirectShow support that On2 Technologies claims has better compression than leading competitive codecs such as MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1.-...
codec with better compression capabilities than VP6.
In April 2005, On2 Technologies licensed On2 Video Codec (including VP6 and VP7) for Macromedia Flash. In August 2005, Macromedia
Macromedia
Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...
announced they had selected VP6 as the flagship new codec for video playback in the new Flash Player 8.
In March 2006, a VP6 decoder (libvp62) appeared as an open-source project, but was driven underground by On2 on copyright infringement claims.
As of September 2006, an open-source implementation of the decoder is part of the libavcodec
Libavcodec
libavcodec is a free software/open source LGPL-licensed library of codecs for encoding and decoding video and audio data. Same name but incompatible libraries are provided from both FFmpeg project and Libav project....
project. VP6 decoder is part of stable version FFmpeg
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
0.5, released in March 2009. There are some claims that producing or dealing with VP6 video streams inside libavcodec/libavformat is discouraged and/or refused due to clashes between the FFmpeg's developers and On2 technologies by a claim of Intellectual Property and Trade Secrets Infringement made by the corporation itself.
In May 2008, Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
announced it had licensed On2 TrueMotion codecs to add video capabilities to JavaFX
JavaFX
JavaFX is a software platform for creating and delivering rich Internet applications that can run across a wide variety of connected devices....
, a family of products for creating Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) across Mobile, Desktop, TV and more. JavaFX uses On2 VP6.
Later incarnations of this codec are VP7
VP7
TrueMotion VP7 is a video codec developed by On2 Technologies as a successor to earlier efforts such as VP3, VP5 and TrueMotion VP6. It is a codec with both VFW and DirectShow support that On2 Technologies claims has better compression than leading competitive codecs such as MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1.-...
and VP8
VP8
VP8 is an open video compression format released by Google, originally created by On2 Technologies.After purchasing On2 Technologies in early 2010, Google has provided an irrevocable patent promise for underlying patents for the VP8 format, and released a bitstream format specification under a...
. With the Google acquisition of On2, VP8 is licensed as open source. Earlier versions such as VP6 remain unsupported.