Microsoft Opens Windows Media 9 Codec to SMPTE

Competing on Openness
Microsoft's effort is different from standards and open source efforts by other leaders in the networked media space. Microsoft's approach is to open its codec in an effort to center the industry around its platforms. Apple computer has invested heavily in MPEG4, another potential successor to MPEG2, in an effort to make Quicktime the best implementation of that standard. RealNetworks' strategy, with its open source Helix DNA platform, focuses on the delivery technology, intending to support any and all formats, codecs, and platforms that the industry chooses. These approaches are not necessarily incompatible. If all these strategies succeed, you could one day see a video encoded with the SMPTE/WM9 codec, wrapped inside a Quicktime/MPEG4 container, and served by a Helix server to a RealONE player on a cell phone.

Does the world really have room for another compression technology added to the mass of standards that presently exist? Well, according to Symes, it does. WM9's value is that it can provide the high quality of MPEG2 at far lower bitrates than MPEG2. You won't fit an HDTV movie on a single DVD disc in MPEG2 format. Likewise, a better compression technology could allow cable TV or satellite system operators to increase video quality or add more channels while using the same bandwith. A personal video recorder (i.e. TiVo) could multiply its storage capacity by using greater compression.

The Standards Wringer
The next few months will be critical for Microsoft's proposal. SMPTE will pass the specifications document around to a panel of industry experts in compression technology. Not a group to mince words, the result of the peer review process is likely to be frank and comprehensive. The review process can include several iterations of comment, response, and even modifications to the proposed specification. The proposal becomes a standard only when the panel reaches consensus. This intense technical examination and stamp of approval gives an accepted technology a huge boost in credibility. By itself, that's not enough to ensure market success, but it certainly isn't a bad place for Microsoft to start.