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Microsoft shows off JPEG rival | |
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| Time: 01:02 EST/06:02 GMT | News Source: News.com | Posted By: Jonathan Tigner | ||
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If it is up to Microsoft, the omnipresent JPEG image format will be replaced by Windows Media Photo. The software maker detailed the new image format Wednesday at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference here. Windows Media Photo will be supported in Windows Vista and also be made available for Windows XP, Bill Crow, program manager for Windows Media Photo said in a presentation. "One of the biggest reasons people upgrade their PCs is digital photos," Crow said, noting that Microsoft has been in contact with printer makers, digital camera companies and other unnamed industry partners while working on Windows Media Photo. Microsoft touts managing "digital memories" as one of the key attributes of XP successor Vista. In his presentation, Crow showed an image with 24:1 compression that visibly contained more detail in the Windows Media Photo format than the JPEG and JPEG 2000 formats compressed at the same level. | ||
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| #1 By 2459 (24.175.137.39) at 5/25/2006 1:20:39 AM |
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WM Photo is also part of the XPS spec.
Features include: Multiple color formats for display or print Fixed or floating point high dynamic range image encoding Lossless or high quality lossy compression Extremely efficient decoding for multiple resolutions and sub-regions Minimal overhead for format conversion or transformations during decode Windows Media Photo delivers a lightweight, high-performance algorithm with a small memory footprint that enables practical, in-device encoding and decoding. WM Photo Spec: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/wmphoto.mspx XPS and others: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/downloads.mspx |
| #2 By 7760 (12.155.143.50) at 5/25/2006 3:56:38 AM |
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"Steven Wells, a part-time professional photographer, said he sees promise in the new file format. 'The JPEG artifacts make it almost unusable for professional photographers,' he said. 'Windows Media Photo is possibly the first viable compression format.'"
At first, this made it sound like it was an alternative to RAW, but losslessness is only one advantage of RAW. As we know, there's also the fact that white balance and other adjustments aren't applied to RAW, enabling much better post-processing. I kind of doubt that WMP would allow this. I'd sure love for it to be an option. Otherwise, I don't see professionals adopting this new format over RAW except in emergencies (like running out of storage space). |
| #3 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 5/25/2006 9:55:34 AM |
| I don't suppose MS went out of its way to disclose the licensing terms for this new format they want to take over the digital camera world with? |
| #4 By 2459 (24.175.137.39) at 5/25/2006 2:45:20 PM |
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WMPhoto will follow the provisions of the XPS license.
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/xpslicense.mspx |
| #5 By 37047 (216.191.227.68) at 5/25/2006 3:31:27 PM |
| What I'd really like to see is a side by side comparison between WMP and PNG, at the same compression ratio. PNG is lossless, patentless, and compresses better then GIF and JPG. |
| #6 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 5/25/2006 3:45:03 PM |
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#4: Thanks.
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| #7 By 22601 (69.194.250.221) at 5/25/2006 4:09:28 PM |
| #5, PNG does not always compress better than JPG. For photos, PNG files are typically larger than JPG files when reasonable compression is applied. |
| #8 By 3653 (68.52.143.149) at 5/28/2006 8:26:38 PM |
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cupsdell, i agree. but for the life of me, i thought this wasnt supposed to be the case. i thought that was one of the original selling points of png.
regarding msft's new file format... isn't this just a way for msft to license other, more all-encompassing solutions to partners to enable an easier path to end products? Take the Windows Live Messenger VoIP dual phones, as a silly example. If MSFT decides to allow the handsets to access the buddy icons, does it make a lot of sense to force Motorola/Philips/Uniden to go out and seek a seperate jpg license? No. It makes sense to say "here's all you need to provide a solution. now add some slick hardware like you know how to do, and lets go make money together". This post was edited by mooresa56 on Sunday, May 28, 2006 at 20:31. |
| #9 By 37047 (216.191.227.68) at 5/29/2006 12:14:15 PM |
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I should point out that PNG was designed to replace GIF, not JPG. The main idea behind PNG was to offer better lossless compression than GIF, and be patent / license free, which GIF wasn't at the time. This was back when Unisys was making anyone who wrote a GIF encoder to obtain an LZH license, on a per sale basis.
Being lossy, JPG will always be able to compress to a smaller file than PNG, depending on how much loss of detail is acceptable to the user. I was merely curious how WMPhoto and PNG would compare. |
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