JPEG Photo Format on Its Way Out? – PCWorld.com: Microsoft Corp. will soon submit a new photo format to an international standards organization that it says offers higher quality images with better compression.
The format, HD Photo, is taking aim at the JPEG format, a 15-year old technology still widely used in digital cameras and image applications.
Although JPEG is aging, it has been modified to help keep it up to date.
Adobe Systems Inc. and Microsoft will release a plug-ins for CS3 and CS2 versions of its widely used Photoshop program for Vista, XP and Apple Inc.’s OS X. Also, Microsoft also has built a HD Photo Device Porting Kit so hardware manufacturers can support it.
Anyone want to bet that this new format will be proprietary (it will have to be licensed) and chock full of DRM? Sorry Microsoft I don’t trust you.
1: Ha! I was coming here to say that.
Oh here we go with the windows DRM FUD again.
Vista doesn’t allow you to open non DRM media!!!!
A lot of wrangling on Slashdot over this:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/09/0015250
Some are worried about the patent implications and chary of this move bearing in mind Microsoft’s past record on gaming the public with formats:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Photo#Licensing
Some say its not likely to displace tiff as an exchange format for pro photographers, and others say JPEG will do for most other purposes and point to the lack of traction of JPEG2000.
I guess we’ll see.
A(nother) MS solution in search of a problem…just who is complaining about jpg? Other than MS…
JPEG2000 is the better format, though HDPhoto has the more commercial friendly name.
I mean.. just look at that name. If that doesn’t scream “trying to grab mindspace” I don’t know what does.
5 – I am, the quality is pretty crap. Wavlet compression works much better and preserves more (perceptual) quality at high compression.
.Gif was the standard before. jpg and paint shop was also a standard probably before that.
Actually .JPG format was replaced several years back by .jp2
Most people feel comfortable with jpg
Their are hundreds if not thousands of photo compression formats
This is Microsoft’s attempt at coining the standard.
It really doesn’t matter what they do. If its better without a hassle people will adapt to it.
#7, since when has Microsoft done ANYTHING “without a hassle?” Especially to non-MS platforms.
Another Microsoft standard that won’t be standard. It seem Microsoft follows better than it leads.
#8,
If you researched for like 2 minutes like I did, you will see the SDK they released for this come with complete source code to compress, decompress, and render this format. Also the EULA basically says, here you go Internet community, have at it.
But hey, this is Microsoft we are talking about so bash away.
Nothing is wrong with .jpg
I mean, how good does the porn need to be? You look, you whack, and 5 minutes later you are playing Counter Strike again.
#10.. excellent point.
The key learning is some in here have no thought of their own, they propagate FUD. Which, is an easy way to put your name on some blog pretending to know something about the topic.
I hope the new format catches on, but I fear the “JPG is good enough and common” will win out.
What? No mac fan is going to say “the .png format is better than HDPhoto!”
10. “Also the EULA basically says, here you go Internet community, have at it.”
It does not matter what the EULA says. First, the EULA can always be changed. Second, if Microsoft has patents on it, and you know Microsoft has patents on it, it cannot be used in open source.
And Microsoft knows that. Thus, as long as it holds patents Linux or OpenOffice will never legally be able to use those image formats. Thus its EULA is meaningless.
And if Microsoft truly said, “here you go Internet community, have at it” it would not need a fricken EULA!!! It would simply turn over the source code and tear up its patents. How can you honestly believe that Microsoft is giving this to the “internet community”(whatever the frick that is) when it’s holding all the strings?! You’re usually a pretty bright guy GregA, but lately you’ve been a little too blind to Microsoft’s MO.
#14 Your right. Its nothing more then M$ making another attempt to lock users into the Windows platform, just like they did with active x.
I’m with the general consensus here:
1) A new photo format is a good idea.
2) MS is a bad company to do it.
Unless MS wants to break habit and create something that is open-source, non proprietary and elegant.
It could be a way for them to gain some goodwill back.
15. “I though the GNU’s GPL was a kind of EULA”
It is a license. What’s your point?
I should also point out that DRM in photos is a MUCH different issue than in music because the vast majority of us create photos rather than use commercial material. It’s just the opposite of music which very few of us create.
I would not object to some sort of water marking for DRM purposes — as long as it is totally unobtrusive when not needed. (This is where MS is very likely to fail.)
#11, Right. My thoughts exactly.
I trust *nothing* from Micro$oft! Any new formats or standards must come from the open source community if they are to have any wide-spread use. Don’t trust a proprietary format from a comercial company!
Haha, just use bitmap if you want high quality lossless pictures.
MS will run into the same problem that alternative sound formats have experienced – the established user base. Everyone uses JPG. If MS can get the camera makers to go along with this, the new format may have a chance of overtaking the older standard, so long as it doesn’t inconvenience Joe User on vacation at the beach.
SN, you’re right about Microsoft’s MO, but if they later change the terms in ways that interfere with people’s ability to use it, I believe they could wind up with serious problems, like Sony with its idiot root kits. Anyway, as Greg Allen pointed out, most people create their own images so it doesn’t seem very likely to become the same kind of issue as the way MS panders to the entertainment mafia.