DVD Forum Approves WMVHD VC-9 CODEC for HD-DVD
Microsoft has come a long way from its announcement at CES 2004 that it had entered the foray of high-definition DVD. This week the company won a very crucial vote when the Steering Committee for the DVD Forum DID NOT APPROVE a resolution that would retain the current "provisional" approval of HD-DVD CODECs until Windows Media Player VC-9 produced licensing terms with the same level of information as that of AVC/H.264. In a sense, this is a victory by way of voting to proceed with adding VC-9 as a fully adopted CODEC and removing the "provisional" status of the composite CODECs. Microsoft's entry into licensing its technology is an uncharacteristic and big move for them and seems to have scored a win in this latest meeting.
Below are the actual resolutions and the votes as given by the DVD Forum. Resolution #11 is the vote that adopted Micorsoft's Windows Media Player VC-9 CODEC (WMVHD) officially into the HD-DVD spec.
No. | Voting Subject | Result |
1 | Authorization for Forum Counsel to File Notice Under New U.S. Law, Entitled Standards Development Organization Act | approved |
2 | Draft minutes of the last Steering Committee (Feb/25-26/2004) | approved |
3 | New PR activity rule proposed by Chair and Vice chiars. "After the SC, the results will be publicized by using the general area of DVD Forum website ASAP. The results will only be publicized at this stage by indicating what items were voted upon and the results (approved or not approved). The minutes will be posted on the general area of the DVD Forum website after the minutes are confirmed by the SC members." | approved |
4 |
New Guideline and recommendation for advance notice of steering committee materials proposed by Chair and Vice chairs (to be posted on Forum website for Forum members). < Guideline and Recommendation >
|
approved |
5 | Proposed amendment to DVD Forum charter 8(5)(a) and 9(5). | not approved |
6 | Allowing 20 SC members to participate in FLAH, which will be designated a committee. The new committee will recommend a new name to the SC and serve in an advisory capacity with respect to format/logo issues. | approved |
7 | Version up to 2.1 information for DVD-R for General | approved |
8 | 2X-SPEED DVD-R Optional Specifications Revision 4.0 | approved |
9 | HD DVD-ROM Physical Specifications ver.1.0 | approved |
10 | Version up of DVD Multi specification (version 1.1) and its posting on the DVD FLLC web site | approved |
11 | Motion to retain the provisional approval of the CODECs until the level of information concerning the licensing terms for VC-9 is the same as the level of information concerning the licensing terms for AVC/H.264 | not approved |
12 | Audio Codec (HE-AAC) for the mandatory audio codec of DVD-Audio ROM-Zone | approved |
13 | PCC Chair: Hitachi | approved |
14 | Amendment of Article 12. (2) of the Forum Charter | approved |
15 | DVD Format/Logo License Agreement to be applied from January 1, 2005 | approved |
We'll try to keep you informed on this as the format, players and software matures. The road is not clear, but it may be swift depending upon the positions taken by the Blu-Ray crowd and the number of manufacturing lines that are set up in coordination with studios willing to produce the software for these high-definition DVD formats.