Chinese AVS Codec, Is It Ever Going to Matter?
Posted by Sachin Garg on 4th October 2006 | Permanent Link
Approved in December last year, there are still few takers for this technology.
It was supposed to save chinese manufacturers from royalty costs of other codecs (assuming they pay those royalties). But each new codec just means additional price for the hardware manufacturers. Most codecs just add to the pool, they don’t really replace existing codecs. In the end consumer pays more.
A lot of support was given to it and it was touted as next big thing. AVS Workgroup even announced a chinese only version of HD-DVD which has the principle modification of adding support for AVS.
But this recent EETimes report says something else:
Despite its approval in March as a Chinese national standard, an A/V codec known as AVS Part 2 has yet to gain traction in the market. Instead, two of China’s largest Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) deployments have opted for H.264.
Backers of AVS believe this will change soon, saying that, so far, China’s deployments of IPTV are only tests. Nevertheless, Shanghai Telecom is building a network for 100,000 viewers, while Beijing Netcom is planning one for 50,000, both using H.264. A third network being planned in Wuhan is also said to be leaning toward H.264.
On2 Technologies CEO, Doug McIntyre, blogged about this when AVS was initially announced: AVS In China, Why No One Cares.
Technologies which can’t offer any really important technological or business advantages, but exist only because someone hated a ‘not-invented-here’ alternate, are just a waste of effort.