[non-Blender] Mox: An open source movie format for video and film production

Bart · October 30, 2014

A new crowdfunding project aims to develop a new open movie format that solves some of the common problems in video and film production. The campaign has 21 days left and is well on its way to meeting its goal of raising $20.000.

The Problem with Existing FormatsThere are already movie formats aimed at professional users but they each fall short in one way or another. Some are not cross-platform, making them difficult to hand off to colleagues. Others do not support key features like higher bit depths and lossless compression. Few have well-designed APIs so that applications can take full advantage of them. Most require developers to pay licensing fees.
The source of these failings is that the formats are not open. Controlled by video software companies, their inner workings are shrouded in mystery. If users need the format to add a new feature or support a different operating system it is entirely at the company’s discretion to do so.
Compare this to an open format like JPEG, which can be read by any program on any device. Or see how OpenEXR has evolved to add features for today’s visual effects artists. There’s no reason we can’t have the same freedom with a movie format.

Link

Indiegogo: An open source movie format for video and film production

Author Bart

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Community Lead at n8n.

6 responses

comeinandburn

30 October 2014 at 12:55

wow! thanks for posting this… I work as a video professional and I struggle with this every day. I wouldn’t have heard about it if you hadn’t posted it here:)

William Armstrong

30 October 2014 at 17:24

How does Matroska not solve all of these issues? It is open source, extensible, can handle any video/audio/picture format you want, and if it doesn’t have yours already, just add it. It is available for Win/Mac/Linux/BSD and anywhere else you may want it. It has a long history as an archival format.

It is well tested, and has many advanced features, such as support for DVD/Blu-Ray like menus, subtitles, and different play orders.

Shenan
30 October 2014 at 19:11
This in-depth interview with the creator should answer all your questions: http://provideocoalition.com/mchristiansen/story/mox-and-open-source-video
In short, he’s not creating a new codec or container. Instead, he is assembling existing free and open container with a limited number codecs, as well as metadata in a predictable manner that will facilitate implementation, exchange, and adoption.
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