After what seems like years of excited development, MPEG-4 has been recently emerging as a product, most noticeably as an encoder/server/player product from Philips;
http://www.streamingmedia.com/r/prin...ly.asp?id=7960
You probably know that MPEG-4 is a new industry standard for audio/video, hyped especially for its scalability over streaming tcp/ip architecture, here's an out line of the protocol;
http://mpeg.telecomitalialab.com/sta...g-4/mpeg-4.htm
And here is a brief article from maccentral, with Phil Schiller expressing Apple's commitment to MPEG-4,
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/...icktime.shtml, here's a small extract:
"He then gave a brief history of MPEG from 1 to 4, and explained that QuickTime is now the format that MPEG 4 has selected as its format of choice. On a near final word, Schiller called QuickTime the obvious choice as a "vault" for streaming video assets, now and in the future. "
Indeed, and if we look in more detail at the MPEG-4 specification (http://mpeg.telecomitalialab.com/standards/mpeg-4/mpeg-4.htm) :
"The file format is designed to be independent of any particular delivery protocol while enabling efficient support for delivery in general. The design is based on the QuickTimeŽ format from Apple Computer Inc"
It seems that Apple is truly at the centre of the development of MPEG-4, and a quick look at the members list at
http://www.m4if.org/membercompanies.html, which is the industry forum for the development of the architecture, gives a clear indication of the pervasiveness and importance of the system.
Exciting stuff! Wait...
So just recently we have a standard released by a second collaborative forum, the ISMA (Internet Streaming Media Alliance) which of course, includes Apple:
http://ism-alliance.org/cgi-bin/phtm/prlist.pl?9986 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2001/10...media.html?net http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200....hl.ne_7413755
What we have is a cross platform streaming audio and video architecture informed by, and informing the Quicktime format. Just days after the release of ISMA-1 we have a press release from Apple about a ground breaking new product which purportedly involves the iTunes and Quicktime teams!
Anyone for a MPEG-4 receiver for television hi-fi connectivity? Takes data streams over firewire and airport for internet or local playback of VOD or your very own iMovie, iTune, iDVD media, the center of you digital hub...
lets wait and see...
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