On2 Technologies, the compression technology experts, have updated their VP3 for QuickTime.
VP3 is a free QuickTime coded that offers TV-quality video compression and streaming capabilities with support for multiple bit rates within a single file. The company supports RealPlayer and Windows Media Player in addition to QuickTime.
The updated version of VP3.2 has some added features that “make it a more encoder-friendly version than its predecessor,” according to Douglas McIntyre, On2 Technologies’ president and CEO. However, he didn’t specify what those features were. Still, unlike MPEG-4, VP3.2 has no encoder fees, no decoder fees and no usage fees, McIntyre said.
“We’ve always thought it of paramount importance to continually provide users of VP3 the best product possible,” McIntyre said.”Since MPEG LA announced the license fee structure associated with MPEG-4, even more eyes are focused on alternatives.”
On2 also makes a VP3 plug-in that can be used to encode VP3 video at home and play back using the QuickTime architecture. The VP3 for QuickTime codec allows you to encode VP3 video using any QuickTime compliant encoding application (such as Adobe Premiere, Media Cleaner 5, or QuickTime Pro) and play back video through QuickTime. The US$395 license allows encoding on a single machine and comes with limited e-mail support. The plug-in is available in Mac OS 8/9, Mac OS X, and Windows flavors.