After all the hub-bub back in May about the licensing of H.264, many people were worried about the future of the latest HD cameras using the MPEG4 compression. There was even talk of development of other codecs that would be more “open source.”

The MPEG Licensing Association announced yesterday that they are putting a permanent moratorium on licensing fees of H.264.

According to ARS Technica:

“Today’s announcement by the MPEG LA extends the time period of the moratorium for the life of its “AVC Patent Portfolio License,” effectively making free-to-view H.264 encoded video royalty-free indefinitely. The MPEG LA noted that licensing fees will still be in effect for video that consumers pay for, such as AVC-encoded Blu-ray discs, on demand services like Hulu+, and pay-to-download services like iTunes.”

I guess we can all keep shooting away in MPEG4 now…

Read the story on ARS Technica.

ZDNet’s story on this.

The “ticket price” is reasonable – the talent is superior – and the city is gorgeous.

b-roller of the YEAR, Darren Durlach along with Kurt Austin, Adam Tischler, John Sharify, Doug Burgess, Boyd Huppert, Anne Herbst, and John Sharify are all scheduled to speak. If I’m lucky, I’ll be there, too…

According to the website…

“Helping journalists tell compelling visual stories is the heart driving the NWVW… The focus will also shift from a multiple day hands-on workshop and adopt a single-day, jam-packed conference making it easier to attend. “

Check it out here…

Thanks to Adam Tischler for letting me spread the word…

UPDATE:

Back in May, we saw the drama begin when freelancer Jud Morris, sold video of alleged police brutality to a competing station. This raised a lot of questions on who owns the video shoot by a freelancer.

Now the situation has turned to: who owns that camera you have in your apartment.

According to published reports, the same freelancer, Jud Morris, has now been arrested for theft when multiple cameras owned by the Seattle Fox Affiliate were found in his home.

The story gets more interesting every day.

Maybe he woke up with amnesia. Or is really an evil twin. Or some other cliched Soap Opera plot…

The b-roll.net FORUM discussion is here…

http://news.sel.sony.com/en/press_ro…ase/58004.html

It will be priced around $2000 and will shoot 1080p video @24MBPS or 14 MP stills. I didn’t see anything about recording format, but I’m assuming it will be AVCHD or something along those lines.

Compared to Panasonic’s $6000 camera, I’d say that Sony will definitely have a price advantage. Plus, the Sony will come with a lens. It also looks a bit smaller with better ergonomics than the Panasonic. No XLR inputs, but then again, it’s a consumer cam.

I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of images these larger sensor cameras can make compared to their more expensive relatives.

Now I suppose we’ll have to wait and see what Canon will unveil, if anything. I think the thing I’d like to see the most would be an improved codec or format that doesn’t compress the data so much.

Basically, this is Panasonic’s first attempt at a merger of best of DSLR and video cameras. The lens selection and larger sensor of a DSLR in a practical video camera configuration with XLR and HD-SDI connections. Rumors to run around $6,000 – it could be an economical performance camera.

From the press release…

“The AF100 incorporates a 4/3-inch, 16:9 MOS imager. The camcorder records 1080/60i, 50i, 30p, 25p and 24p (native) and 720/60p, 50p, 30p, 25p and 24p (native) in AVCHD’s highest-quality PH mode (maximum 24Mbps). Ready for global production standards, the camcorder is 60Hz and 50Hz switchable.

The AF100 maximizes the potential of its high-resolution imager with built-in ND filtering and dramatically reduced video aliasing. Standard professional interfaces include HD-SDI out, HDMI, time code recording, built-in stereo microphone and USB 2.0. The AF100 features two XLR inputs with +48V Phantom Power capability, 48-kHz/16-bit two-channel digital audio recording and supports LPCM/Dolby-AC3.”

Download the PDF