[gst-announce] Fluendo announces Windows Media and MPEG codec support for GNU/Linux and Solaris

[Christian F.K. Schaller]

Fluendo announces Windows Media and MPEG codec support for GNU/Linux and
Solaris

Fluendo announces an extensive set of plug-ins enabling Windows Media,
MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 support for GNU/Linux and Solaris systems

Tuesday Monday 15th, 2007 - Barcelona, Spain

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Fluendo, leader in GNU/Linux and Unix multimedia solutions, is expanding
its offerings with the general availability of a wide range of codecs
for the GNU/Linux and Solaris desktop and server systems. The Fluendo
codecs plug directly into the popular and widely used GStreamer
multimedia framework available on all the major GNU/Linux and Solaris
systems.

Users of GNU/Linux and Solaris operating systems have previously lacked
solutions which enabled them to license and use popular media formats
such as Windows Media, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 in accordance with the laws of
their country. Through Fluendo's agreements with Microsoft and MPEG LA
such a solution is now available.

By closely integrating with the GStreamer multimedia framework,
Fluendo's new plugins enable support for these widely used codecs in
popular GNU/Linux and Solaris applications such as Totem Video Player,
Rhythmbox music player, Banshee Music player, Elisa Media Center and the
Jokosher sound editor. The close cooperation between Fluendo and the
Totem media player project means that the plugins automatically enable
support for media enabled websites such as cnn.com which use Windows
Media formats and streaming protocols.

With this announcement Fluendo makes available plug-ins to handle
Windows Media Audio, Windows Media Video, Windows Media MMS streaming
protocol handling, MPEG-2 video decoding, MPEG-4 Part 2 video decoding,
ASF container format demuxing, MPEG-2 Program and Transport Stream
container format demuxing, MPEG-4 ISO container format demuxing and MP3
audio. Further codecs are planned for release over the course of 2007.

“We are very happy to be able to provide the GNU/Linux and Solaris
communities with this set of multimedia codecs. We have had these codecs
in development for quite some time, to ensure they are of the highest
quality possible and that all legal aspects are properly covered. By
offering this drop-in solution we hope to increase the competitiveness
of the GNU/Linux and Solaris platforms.”, says Fluendo co-founder Pascal
Pegaz.

Fluendo S.A.

Fluendo is a company specialising in delivering products and consulting
services focusing on UNIX and GNU/Linux multimedia. Fluendo employs
several of the central developers of the GStreamer multimedia framework,
which is quickly establishing itself as the de-facto standard multimedia
framework for GNU/Linux and UNIX systems.

Fluendo Web Shop

All the codecs announced here are immediately available from the Fluendo
web shop at http://shop.fluendo.com

For more information

For more information on Fluendo, visit the website at
http://www.fluendo.com/
or mail <info at fluendo.com>

Fluendo would like to thank Carlo Piana of Tamos Piana & Partners for
his legal advice and assistance during the process of licensing and
developing these codecs. Being a lawyer and legal expert on issues such
as software licensing, software patents and open source and free
software licensees his assistance has been crucial for bringing this
project to a successful completion.


Christian F.K. Schaller
-------------------------
Business Development Manager
Fluendo S.A.
Office Phone: +34 933175153