H264* vs H264

[mazzarak]

Hi guys

bowing down to your combined wisdom again, what is the significance of the * as in H264*, the video protocol that can be picked off the list on the MGC100 v6?

Does this differ from the H264 that is in the upcoming MGC100 v7 ?

thanks

Andy

[cribbinsb]

H.264* is a polycom proprietary implementation of H.264 that is not interoperable with true standards based implementations from other vendors. For example you can use H.264 between Tandberg, Sony, Aethra or Codian devices but none of these will be able to use H.264 to a Polycom that only supports H.264*. The Polycom VSX7000 originally only supported H.264* but recent software updates have enabled true interoperable H.264. I suppose that Polycom are now doing the same for the MGC100.

[mazzarak]

genius.

thank you.

[Sean Lessman]

Hi guys

bowing down to your combined wisdom again, what is the significance of the * as in H264*, the video protocol that can be picked off the list on the MGC100 v6?

Does this differ from the H264 that is in the upcoming MGC100 v7 ?

thanks

AndyThe full story is basically this...

H.264 was ratified in July 2003 (July 13th) and TANDBERG began showing H.264 in alpha/beta as early as January of that year at tradeshows and to customers. We made it quite public that we intended to release this feature as soon as the standard was ratified, not before.

Polycom made a press release in March saying they were first to deliver H.264. Problem is, there was no H.264 standard so they had developed towards as much of the standard as possible, but a lot changed from March to July in the ITU standards bodies. Therefore the would advertise H.264* (and the * at the bottom of the page would say something like 'implemented to the current specifications of H.264 as it is going through standardization etc etc etc). Over time, the disclaimer at the bottom disappeared in their literature and just left the H.264* (any high school english teacher would shoot you for having a footnote without the explanation at the bottom). Then the '*' disappeared...but the non-standard H.264 was never fixed.

We developed along with the standards body but waited until ratification before release, allowing us to be first to market with the actual H.264 and not have a proprietary (early version) of H.264 out on the market.

A year after their first announcement of delivering H.264 first, they put out another announcement saying they now are delivering standards H.264 to market. Its all marketing, because there are no such things as your version of a standard. You are either standard, or you are not (to quote Polycom from recent press releases).

So, here are the software versions that are standardized:

iPower version 6
FX/EX/VS4000 version 6
VSX7000/8000/3000/500 version 7
PVX all
Accord version 7 (not released yet)

Sean

[tovik]

nice going body ,
h.264* is actuly an old version of today h.264 ?

[Sean Lessman]

nice going body ,
h.264* is actuly an old version of today h.264 ?

No. It was a preliminary 'version' that was not inline with the final standard. Polycom decided to release it early and beat the standard, probably for marketing purposes. The '*' was for a footnote that basically said "developed alongside the standard and up to the current development". Later, the '*' footnote disappeared, and then the '*' disappeared, but Polycom didn't actually develop H.264 until almost a year after ratification. H.264* and H.264 are not compatible.

Basically run away from any usage of H.264* -- upgrade to the final standard.

Sean

[tovik]

thank you very much

[Gary Miyakawa]

Hey guys..

This is an old thread (January, 2005)...

Just pointing out that most all products listed here are supporting Standards based H.264