FX/EX that can handle H.264 is good news – especially now that it is standards based and will work with Tandberg and others. Since we own both, I am very happy to hear this news. AES encryption – like a lot of customers I could care less about this feature. But for those who want/need this feature - it is a good thing to get rid of the external Babylon devices.
quote:From WRB V5 #04 “These announcements are far from revolutionary, but they do show evolutionary improvements, and point towards some maturation in the market. Polycom joins TANDBERG with extensive support for H.264 and both companies are now likely to be interoperable on this front since they both claim to comply with the ITU standard. Customers will benefit.”
I think the biggest news is what is missing in the latest press releases. Both Tandberg's and Polycom's latest software seem to be void of H.239 support. This seems to be an issue that really hurts the end user. Now there are three distinct camps - Tandberg's DuoVideo, Polycom's Enterprise People+Content, and everybody else using H.239. I, like many others, suspected the next release from Tandberg and Polycom would support H.239. Though I did not receive any promises, I am more disappointed in Tandberg since they seem to be the leader when it comes to implementing the standards, which in turn usually forces Polycom to follow.
What I don’t understand is why both companies are holding back on this support. I also noticed your release ignores this fact. Do you think Tandberg and Polycom will ever decide to support H.239? Maybe customers (except for me) aren’t using DuoVideo and People+Content and it is not an important issue.
posted 04 February 2004 04:13 AM
The lack of H.239 support came as a big shock to me as well. I really expected support for the new standard as I´ve been hearing promises of future support for the new standard all around me. Q1 has been the magical word but it seems like neither Tandberg nor Polycom will be supporting it in Q1. There is still a small change that some of the .dot releases will support H.239 but seems a bit unlikely. Maybe Sony will be different in this, let´s hope so.
quote: Maybe customers (except for me) aren’t using DuoVideo and People+Content and it is not an important issue.
You definetly are not the only one using the different forms of dual video. We and many of our customers here in Finland are eager users of DuoVideo etc. H.239 is like The Holy Grale for us as we use and provide Sony, VCON, Polycom and Tandberg. It´s practically useless to call to a system from a different vendor if you´re not able to use the features you´re paying for. Now that H.264 and AES seem to be coming the industry trend, let´s hope that H.239 will be "the next big thing" from the manufacturers point of view.
posted 06 February 2004 12:22 AM
I already outlined my disappointment on the H.239 development on another WR forum. My impression is that all companies are trying to use the dying proprietary tools like DuoVideo etc. to force their customers to stay with them. because of the needed ineteroperability. Yes we do need and use a lot of Tandbergs with DuoVideo. But we need some more systems and we need to co-operate with external partners in international research projects. Actually we are holding back in buying new systems because of the unclear standard availability i.e. ignorant behaviour especially by Polycom and Tandberg. Happy to read nevertheless that other customers like Joe and Timo are on my line. Andy, where is your well known critical voice on that?
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posted 26 January 2004 08:33 PM
