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Old 22nd December 2017, 14:27   #8  |  Link
jonatans
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Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 56
Quote:
Originally Posted by nevcairiel View Post
But doesn't that then potentially mean that previously encoded files become un-decodable as some features are disabled?
Correct. If a specific technology needs to be removed from xvc in the next xvc version, bitstreams that made use of that technology can no longer be decoded by the latest xvc decoder.

This is somewhat similar to how for example different generations of MPEG codecs or H.26x codecs or VPx codecs, not necessarily offer support for decoding bitstreams of their previous generation. With the difference that with xvc, it might potentially occur more frequently.

If technology removal occurs, service providers with large assets of xvc bitstreams have the options of:
1) transcode their bitstreams to the new xvc version (which might be a lightweight process depending on the technology that is being replaced and which might even offer better compression if the new xvc version also includes new compression tools)
2) come to an agreement with the patent holder outside of the xvc licensing program in order to be able to continue to use the technology.
3) ditch the xvc version of their legacy assets and fall back to their h.264 version for those assets (which they'll probably anyway have, in order to support some legacy platforms) and just use the new xvc version for new assets.
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