• kralk@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    I have literally no understanding of video codecs, standards etc. Is there a “set and forget” option which is free and good?

    • GHiLA@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      H264 is almost universally playable and transcodable by nearly everything on earth.

        • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Commercial use requires payment to patent holders, free use does not (whenever end user does not pay to watch). I dont know how ad supported streams are categorized, probably commercial. For personal use, I wouldnt worry about the license. Worry when you start a streaming server and start making revenue.

        • d_k_bo@feddit.org
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          1 month ago

          That depends on where you live. In many parts of the world, software patents don’t exist and aren’t applied.

          • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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            1 month ago

            It is also illegal in most places beside France

            Not enforced so you should use it but it is technically illegal. Same thing with Linux distros shipping anything under patent.

            • Successful_Try543@feddit.org
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              1 month ago

              I think you’re mixing the libdvdcss library for playing protected DVDs or referring to some other non-free, patented codec with the x264 package implementation of the H.264 codec, which the patent holders allowed to be used freely for non-commercial use.