[MPlayer-users] encoding mpegs for windows users

[D Richard Felker III]

On Tue, Aug 05, 2003 at 11:55:07PM +0200, Matthias Wieser wrote:
> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> 
> Am Dienstag, 5. August 2003 13:34 schrieb D Richard Felker III:
> >
> > Vladimir Mosgalin wrote:
> >
> > > ... And it doesn't store mplayer aspect tag. Well, since it's mplayer
> > > proprietary, no big deal...
> >
> > Are you trolling or just ignorant?? There is no such thing as an
> > "mplayer proprietary" aspect tag. It's part of the mpeg4 standard.
> 
> >From /DOCS/en/encoding.html:
> 
> | This feature can be used only with libavcodec's mpeg4 codec. Keep in
> | mind: although MPlayer will correctly play the created file, other
> | players will use the wrong aspect ratio.
> 
> This sounds like "mplayer proprietary". Do you really know that there is 
> *no* other player which will correctly play those files? Otherwise 
> encoding.html should be changed.

Yes, the information in encoding.html was correct when it was written,
and afaik, it's still true now. Something is "proprietary" when it's
added outside or in violation of an accepted standard, and usually
kept secret and treated as valuable inside information. IMHO it's
inherently an oxymoron to call any feature in free software
proprietary since it's quite publicly documented, but here the issue
is even more black-and-white (and thus doesn't depend on MHO) since
aspect is part of the mpeg4 headers (just like in mpeg1 and mpeg2) as
documented in the standard.

Rich