VP3 was originally a proprietary video codec developed by On2 Technologies. It is closely comparable in quality and bitrate to MPEG-4 Part 2 video codecs. A video codec is a device or software module that enables the use of compression for digital video. ... On2 Technologies is the developer behind the VP5 and VP6 codecs powering the video part of the Chinese-developed competitor to DVD, the EVD (Enhanced Versatile Disc). ... In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (sometimes written bitrate) is the frequency at which bits are passing a given (physical or metaphorical) point. It is quantified using the bit per second (bit/s) unit. ... MPEG-4, introduced in late 1998, is the designation for a group of audio and video coding standards and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). ...

In September, 2001 it was donated to the public as open source, and On2 disclaimed all rights to it, including their patents on the technology. In 2002, they entered into an agreement with the Xiph.org Foundation to make VP3 the base of a new, free video codec, Ogg Theora. It will operate alongside Ogg Vorbis to provide a set of patent and royalty free open source multimedia codecs. Theora is currently still in alpha stage, as of May 2004. September is the ninth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey Dr. Dre 2001 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or substance (known as an invention) which is new, inventive and useful. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Xiph. ... Ogg is a patent-free, fully open multimedia bitstream container format designed for efficient streaming and file compression (storage). ... Theora is a video codec being developed by the Xiph. ... Vorbis is an open and free audio compression (codec) project from the Xiph. ... In software engineering, development stage terminology expresses how far through the development sequence things have progressed and how much further development a product may require. ... 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December Deaths in May • 28 Gerald Anthony • 27 Umberto Agnelli • 22 Richard Biggs • 20 Len Murray • 17 Tony Randall • 17 Ezzedine Salim • 9 Alan King • 9 Akhmad Kadyrov • 8(?) Nick Berg • 7 Waldemar Milewicz Other recent deaths Ongoing...

See Also

• VP6