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Raspberry Pi lands MPEG-2 and VC-1 decoding through personal licenses, H.264 encoding and CEC tag along
Making the Raspberry Pi affordable involved some tough calls, including the omission of MPEG-2 decoding. Licensing fees alone for the video software would have boosted the board's price by approximately 10 percent. Now, after many have made media centers with the hardware, the foundation behind the project has whipped up a solution to add the missing codec. For $3.16, users can purchase an individual MPEG-2 license for each of their boards on the organization's online store. Partial to Microsoft's VC-1 standard? Rights to using Redmond's codec can be purchased for $1.58. H.264 encoding is also in the cards since OpenMax components needed to develop applications with the functionality are now enabled by default in the device's latest firmware. With CEC support thrown into the Raspbmc, XBian and OpenELEC operating systems, a single IR remote can control a Raspberry Pi, a TV and other connected gadgets. If you're ready to load up your Pi with its newfound abilities, hit the source link below. Update: The Raspberry Pi Foundation let us know that US customers won't have to pay sales tax, which means patrons will only be set back $3.16 for MPEG-2 and $1.58 for VC-1 support, not $3.79 and $1.90 for the respective licenses. We've updated the post accordingly.
Zune may or may not ship with video?
So word going around late this week was that the Zune, better known as Microsoft's supposed iPod killer, is slated to ship without support for video. Yeah, you heard that right. According to a report on from the New York Post, "Microsoft called up some content providers and said the video portion of its Zune device... was being delayed." (The other juicy tidbit was that they'd have ad-supported downloads, but that's still unsubstantiated as far as we know.) Microsoft's Zune PR, of course, provided us with the following statement with regards to the story: "We do not have product details to share at this time and as such cannot comment on rumors or speculation." Then, on top of that TechWeb reported that Microsoft actually referred to the rumor as "speculative." It's all the standard fare non-denial denial, we know, but we still don't have any strong reason to believe the Post's report has any weight. Besides the fact that sources told us nothing of the like, Microsoft would effectively be committing Zune to launch failure this buying season if they trot it out into the market place not even as well equipped as your standard iPod. That is, after all, the point of Zune, right? To best the iPod in all the ways Apple's been dragging its feet, and provide a viable alternative? It's 2006, look at that device right up there. If you think that's not going to have video, well, may god rest Zune's soul.[Via Macsimum News, thanks CoreyTheGent, Jon, and Conor]Read - NY PostRead - TechWeb
