xawtv: legal question

[Dmitry Butskoy]

Hans de Goede wrote:
> Dmitry Butskoy wrote:
>   
>
>     I'm going to package "xawtv"
>         
>
>     (A TV application for v4l compliant devices, was in Fedora until
>     FC2, http://linux.bytesex.org/xawtv )
>
>     Xawtv can record TV into raw or avi file, including formats:
>         
>
>           raw - single file, raw video data
>             video formats:
>               rgb     24 bit TrueColor (BE: rgb)   [raw]
>               gray    8 bit StaticGray             [raw]
>               422     16 bit YUV 4:2:2 (packed, YUYV) [raw]
>               422p    16 bit YUV 4:2:2 (planar)    [raw]
>               4mpeg   yuv4mpeg (mpeg2enc >= 1.6)   [yuv]
>               4mpeg-o yuv4mpeg (old mpeg2enc)      [yuv]
>             audio formats:
>               mono8   8bit mono                    [wav]
>               mono16  16bit mono (LE)              [wav]
>               stereo  16bit stereo (LE)            [wav]
>
>           avi - Microsoft AVI (RIFF) format
>             video formats:
>               rgb15   15 bit TrueColor (LE)        [avi]
>               rgb24   24 bit TrueColor (LE: bgr)   [avi]
>               mjpeg   MJPEG (AVI)                  [avi]
>               jpeg    JPEG (JFIF)                  [avi]
>             audio formats:
>               mono8   8bit mono                    [avi]
>               mono16  16bit mono (LE)              [avi]
>               stereo  16bit stereo (LE)            [avi]
>               
>
>     It seems that "yuv4mpeg" is some kind of raw formats, but what
>     about "mjpeg" (motion jpeg) in avi files? I've found that only
>     ffmpeg-based plugins can play it then... 
>
> the 2 4mpeg formats definetely are a patent problem,
Note, that "yuv4mpeg" is not "mpeg" itself, it is "for mpeg" (4mpeg). It 
is really a sequence of uncompressed YUV 4:2:0 images... IMHO it was 
designed to "prepare raw stream for mjpegtools".
> mjpeg OTOH is fine.
Since it is just a sequence of jpeg images?
> I don't know what the status as a container format is.
avi seems to be OK (already used in Core's dvgrab and Extras' xine-lib )


But to be sure, could anyone confirm these my assumptions? :)


~buc