VP6

From Hydrogenaudio Knowledgebase

VP6 is a video codec developed by On2 Technologies as a successor to earlier efforts such as VP3, VP4 and VP5. The VP6 codec has been used in products for broadcasting in the field, such as with BBC reporters and QuickLink software.

In November of 2003, On2 announced that VP6 had been chosen as a codec for China's Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD), a competitor format to DVD. Beijing-based company E-World was to be the exclusive reseller of the EVD VP6 technology in China, with On2 Technologies earning royalty payments of about $2 USD per player. Then in April of 2004 On2 announced that negotiations with E-World had broken down and that On2 would file multiple breach of contract claims against E-World in arbitration proceedings. In March of 2005, On2 announced that the arbitrator had dismissed all of On2's claims and had decided that E-World owed nothing to On2. Although E-World included VP6 to its EVD standardization proposal to the Chinese government, it is not clear what, if any, action was then taken by the government. The EVD format initiative appears to be indefinitely stalled.

In January 2005, On2 announced a new VP7 codec with better compression capabilities than VP6.

External link

  • On2 VP6 Website
  • Google acquired On2 Technologies and its video products and technology in February 2010.