BBC's iPlayer upgraded to H.264 codec – download speed and picture quality boosted
The BBC has been blowing your license fee on further developing its iPlayer service, announcing today that it’s starting to use the open source H.264 video codec and AAC+ audio tech for its streaming telly service.
This has allowed the Beeb to boost the encoding bitrate of streamed shows from 500kbps to 800kbps, so it should all look a little sharper and be in a bigger window when you catch up with I’m Kylie’s Body Double online.
Eric Huggers, writing on the BBC’s Internet Blog, said “I believe that the time has come for the BBC to start adopting open standards such as H.264 and AAC for our audio and video services on the web.
“These technologies have matured enough to make them viable alternatives to other solutions. The advantage for the audience will be a noticeable improvement in audio and video quality. Furthermore, it should become easier for the media to simply work across a broader range of devices,” he typed, probably with a window in the background showing the mixed doubles badminton highlights.
(Via MacWorld)
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