[Openchrome-devel] MPEG-LA / Re: Todo list

[Ivor Hewitt]

On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 01:40:30PM +0000, Simon Farnsworth wrote:
> Harald Welte wrote:
> > On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 03:07:59PM +0100, Xavier Bachelot wrote:
> > 
> >> Depends on the chance we have to see the docs in a relatively short  
> >> timeframe. Only VIA can answer this, and they depend on MPEG-LA will to  
> >> collaborate (or not). Maybe Harald can update us on what's going on  
> >> currently between VIA and MPEG-LA ?
> > 
> > Unfortunately there is no visible result yet.  Bruce has been trying to get
> > a response from the MPEG-LA directly, while I've been talking with some
> > differnt lawyers.  I hope I can clarify tomorrow if VIA wants to pay for an
> > independent legal study on this subject.
> > 
> An alternative suggestion, if releasing the docs is tricky:
> 
> >From what's been released, it looks like the MPEG acceleration engine
> hooks in as another input source to the HQV. Would it be possible to
> define a sensible ABI between the driver and an XvMC blob, such that an
> end user can buy a suitable blob from VIA (paying patent fees when they
> buy the blob)? Openchrome would then need a mechanism to try and load
> this blob.
> 
> In the short term, this is nasty - we end up with a supported ABI to let
> a binary blob talk to the hardware. In the long-term, this simplifies
> the job of REing the hardware; instead of having to deal with traces
> that cover the whole VIA driver, we can just look at what goes through
> the defined ABI.
>
actually to be fair with a binary driver and a source code implementation of a player using it such as xine (e.g. vexp) it's pretty straightforward to reverse engineer the interface already - if time consuming and soul destroying.