Opus is brilliant, both technically and strategically, but its worth noting that despite technical superiority, there's still not a word out of Apple on the subject, Microsoft (despite co-developing it via their Skype purchase) have dragged their heels on this for a long time and still seem reluctant to use it for non-WebRTC audio, and the various groups surrounding ITU/MPEG are still pushing their royalty bearing alternatives via bundling and backroom deals between patent holders.
Even if this new video codec beats the alternative on several dimensions, it'll be a struggle to get adoption for similar reason of entrenched patent owners and business interests.
I can't really bring myself to blame corporations for following short term private gain, but all the nerds who ignored licencing issues in favour of short term technical superiority deserve some blame for this local minimum we're trapped in.
> I can't really bring myself to blame corporations for following short term private gain
Why not? They should be blamed for it, especially when they sabotage interoperability for such gain. This irritates me the most in these companies.
> the nerds who ignored licensing issues in favour of short term technical superiority deserve some blame for this local minimum we're trapped in.
That's free codecs should be ahead of the competition by a big margin. Daala is not just next generation, it's next next generation, which increases its chances to beat patent encumbered competitors and to actually gain traction. No matter what backroom deals can be proposed, if someone can save tons of money on licensing and get much higher quality, it's a no brainier to do it.
Even if this new video codec beats the alternative on several dimensions, it'll be a struggle to get adoption for similar reason of entrenched patent owners and business interests.
I can't really bring myself to blame corporations for following short term private gain, but all the nerds who ignored licencing issues in favour of short term technical superiority deserve some blame for this local minimum we're trapped in.