[MEncoder-users] Patent free codec

[RC]

On Sun, 21 Aug 2005 00:12:29 -0500
Julio César Carrascal <jcarrascal at gmail.com> wrote:

> It's there a codec that isn't encumbered by US software patents?

All the raw codecs.  :-)

MPEG-1:  The patents on it have all expired years ago.

VP3/Theora:  Patents owned by "On2", but they granted a free license for
anyone to use it for anything.

Snow/Dirac:  Dirac was specifically designed to be a patent-free
codec.

MJPEG/NUV:  Not very effecient, but safe.

> I was just wondering if I could play anything with mplayer if
> compiled with flags to exclude patented algorithms.

Very, very little.  With the very notable exception of MPEG-1, you'll
only find a handful of videos using any of those codecs.