Microsoft goes to Hollywood
C|Net | at | by Mike
Microsoft's surprise decision to submit Windows Media Series 9 as a standards candidate in Hollywood underscores the software giant's ambitions to take its multimedia technology beyond the Net--and the considerable barriers it faces.
The Redmond, Wash.-based company sent in its underlying video-compression code for vetting by Society of Motion Picture Television Engineers (SMPTE) this week, a first for Microsoft and a marked departure from the company's longtime commitment to keeping its technology proprietary. In doing so, it's aiming to provide a viable successor to MPEG-2, a compression standard that is the foundation of satellite, cable, video-editing systems and DVDs.