Opus has been accepted as a standard! Win for all of us!
I've been following the Opus codec for the past year or so and watching as it has been added to the Debian/Ubuntu repositories and with Firefox 15 onward. If you didn't know, Opus is new royalty free codec that combines Skype's SILK codec and Xiph.org's CELT to create a well rounded experience that excels at low and high bitrates. Supposed to be equal than or better than AAC/MP3/Vorbis and can be used by itself or in an OGG container.
Full license at http://opus-codec.org/license/
With that in mind, there was some news that many of us have been waiting for that happened on September 11:
Opus Standardized as RFC6716, Versions 1.0.0 and 1.0.1 Are Available
11 September, 2012
It's official, Opus has now been standardized by the IETF as RFC 6716. Along with the RFC are the first stable releases. Version 1.0.0 includes exactly the same source code as the reference implementation in the RFC. Version 1.0.1 also includes minor fixes that were made after the RFC was "frozen". Both releases are available from the downloads page.
Isn't that the codec that Skype will use with the newest versions of skype ? If yes that it is an excelent news :D
I am a translator!
So in near future my Kopete or Pidgin will be able to just add a Skype account? Un-f***ing-believable :D
Chrome, Firefox, and Opera are in the process of implementing WebRTC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebRTC) which may remove the need for a dedicated client for audio and video chat. They are trying to use royalty free video and audio codecs and although Opus is a clear leader for audio, not everyone is set on VP8 for video.
Of course there is no word if Apple is going to support this and in typical Microsoft fashion, they are trying to curb WebRTC's adoption:
"Microsoft, the owners of Skype, have presented an alternative proposal called CU-RTC-WEB to the W3C WebRTC working group. The WebRTC implementation by Google relies upon their VP8 open codec, while the Microsoft proposal utilizes the patent encumbered ISO/IEC standard format H.264."
Let's just hope it doesn't end up like the WebM vs H264 stalemate where Google and Mozilla are pushing open formats but Apple and Microsoft are pushing proprietary formats for native playback.
Just found it out and thought I'd say people are working on a new next-generation video codec too. See:
https://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/video-codec/current/msg00016.html