Apple format beats out Microsoft for digital storage

Electronic News, Feb 16, 1998 by Cynthia Bournellis

Cupertino, Calif.--Some of the biggest names in the industry have been working on a proposal to use Apple Computer's QuickTime file format as the start for the development of a unified digital media storage format for the emerging MPEG-4 specification.

The proposal ---which was put together by Apple, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Oracle, Netscape and Silicon Graphics ---was adopted last week by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and was chosen over similar competing formats such as Microsoft's Advanced Streaming Format. Referred to as ASF, this format is also optimized for streaming media over the Internet/intranet. ISO members said QuickTime was approved, because of its ability to stream media across different network protocols, different file formats and in different bit rates. The goal of the six companies will be to collaborate and refine the proposal in order to ensure the acceptance of MPEG-4 among software developers and end-users. During a press teleconference last week, each company gave sketchy details as to how they will implement hardware and software solutions, according to the proposal. IBM, which makes decoder and encoder chips for MPEG-2, will continue on this route with MPEG-4. Furthermore, IBM will deliver software that will support the upcoming standard, for certain applications such as distance learning. "The opportunities for digital media lie in how our customers do business," said Dr. Armando Garcia, VP of the Internet Media division at IBM. "So we need standards that make digital media more accessible." Oracle, whose Video Server product supports current MPEG versions, plans to bring broadband services to consumers and will build MPEG-4 into Video Server. "We see QuickTime as a way to reposition content across multiple networks using different protocols over the Internet," said Mark Porter, VP of media server development at Oracle. He said currently, developers are doing fractional efforts in regard to writing content to different formats. "Consumers need interactive TV standards, so one provider can make content that works on the TV or over the Internet. Silicon Graphics hopes to grow its applications business and drive content creation. The company plans to incorporate MPEG-4 into its WebForce media streaming products, as well as its Studio Central products used by broadcast companies. Sun will incorporate MPEG-4 into its Java media framework, for use in applications that run on network computers and mainframes. "As with our write once, play anywhere slogan, we want to use MPEG-4 to play anything, anywhere," said Jon Kannegaard, VP of software products at Sun's JavaSoft division. The financial model under which Apple will make money licensing QuickTime was not disclosed. "This isn't a fundamental foundation for a large money making venture," said Peter Hoddie, senior QuickTime architect at Apple. "ISO is clear with all parties in terms of intellectual property. Every company that contributes is obligated to license the technology on a reasonable and non-discriminating basis. We are committed, as a company, to ensure that QuickTime will be broadly adopted."

While the announcement is heavily supported by OEMs, content developers are working with the committee on an "informal" level, said Mr. Porter of Oracle. The software community will be encouraged to get more involved to ensure that the final specification meets their needs. The rush to get the proposal approved had to do with the tight deadlines of ISO, he said.

Meanwhile Microsoft, which was not at the announcement, had previously submitted a proposal to ISO based on ASF 1.0. "QuickTime was chosen, because it has strength in the areas required by MPEG-4," noted Tim Schaaff, senior director of the Interactive Marketing Group at Apple. Microsoft does have products that support QuickTime, such as Internet Explorer. On the other hand, QuickTime can be converted to ASF in the company's NetShow product. Also, the Media Player in QuickTime is part of Windows.

Microsoft has also been active in helping to refine the QuickTime format. "The MPEG process is ongoing, and it will contain the best parts from different submissions. Going forward we will work hard to bring Microsoft to the table," said Mr. Schaaff.

As part of the new proposal, the committee included Microsoft's Global Unique Identifiers (GUI) technology, which addresses extensions to MPEG-4, such as streaming animation. The inclusion of GUI is one piece along the road to defining MPEG-4. "This (the proposal announcement) isn't a big deal, because we support multiple file formats in our OS," said David Britton, group product manager in the Platform Marketing Group at Microsoft, in a phone interview with Electronic News.

He said the overall issues deal with the emerging formats needed to stream media. Another issue Microsoft is addressing is one called indexing. Indexing lets a user "jump" to a specific place in a file. For example, if a user is listening to a keynote speech over the Internet, he or she can go to a specific place within the speech, rather than listen to the whole thing. One could question Microsoft's absence at the announcement. Mr. Britton said he wasn't aware of it. Apple said Microsoft wasn't invited, but did ask conference call listeners not to read too much into that. "If ASF was accepted, we would have been happy to support it," added Mr. Porter of Oracle. "This is not a Microsoft versus everyone else thing. When they proposed ASF in October, we were willing to be behind it if it was the market leader. It needs a bigger market push to make it a standard." Microsoft's Mr. Britton surmised that neither ASF nor QuickTime will become the file format for MPEG-4. "MPEG-4 will probably emerge as a format different from the current ASF and QuickTime. You'll see a slow migration from the existing format to MPEG-4. How does MPEG-4 differ from MPEG-1 and MPEG-2? MPEG-4 is a more complete spec that deals with how to work with different kinds of media. MPEG-4 includes different algorithms and encompasses 3-D and Virtual Reality Markup Language. MPEG-4 is also a complete shift in encoding. On the decoding side, facilities will be built into it to let users manipulate a multimedia scene. Furthermore, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 use high bit rates; MPEG-4 can use any bit rate. MPEG-4 doesn't compete with the other two versions; it is the multimedia standard that is a combination of synthetic and natural objects as well as audio and video.