p2pnet.net News:- The BBC, Britain’s most famous radio broadcast company, wants the Open Source community to work with it on a new video codec named after Paul Dirac and which at the moment is a research tool only.

“In January 2003, BBC R&D produced a prototype video coding algorithm, based on wavelet technology, which is different from that used in the main proprietary or standard video compression systems,” says the Beeb’s R&D section here.

Wavelets is the new buzz technology of the age but wavelet mathematics isn’t new, says Wavestore here.

“Now wavelets have become the new compression technology of the video world.”

Dubbed Dirac, the BBC algorithm, “seems to give a two-fold reduction in bit rate over MPEG-2 for high definition video (e.g. 1920×1080 pixels), its original target application,” it states. “It has been further developed to optimise it for internet streaming resolutions and seems broadly competitive with state of the art video codecs.”

There’s an experimental version in C++ released under an Open Source licence agreement at Sourceforge here.

Dirac is a general-purpose video codec aimed at resolutions from QCIF (180×144) to HDTV (1920×1080) progressive or interlaced. It uses wavelets, motion compensation and arithmetic coding and aims to be competitive with other state of the art codecs.
Development Status: 3 – Alpha
Intended Audience: Developers, End Users/Desktop, Science/Research
License: GNU General Public License (GPL), GNU Library or Lesser General Public License (LGPL), Mozilla Public License 1.1 (MPL 1.1)
Natural Language: English
Operating System: Windows, OS Independent, Linux
Programming Language: C++
Topic: Video

The philosophy behind the Dirac codec is “keep it simple,” says the Beeb, going on:

“This is an ambitious aim since video codecs, particularly those with state of the art performance, tend to be fearsomely complex. However, the BBC would like to collaborate with the Open Source community, academics and others to produce an open codec. It is therefore important for us to keep the principles and design as simple as possible and to provide copious documentation.

“A lot remains to be done to convert our promising algorithm and experimental implementation into practical useable code. This includes optimisation so that it can decode in real time. Algorithmic enhancements are needed to improve the compression performance still further. The resulting codec needs to be integrated with other parts of a compression system, such as players, and interfaced using standard IO formats. We welcome help and support in creating an open and freely available compression system based on this technology.”

This entry was posted on Monday, May 10th, 2004 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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