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RM/RMVB RealAudio and RealVideo technology
RealAudio 10 and RealVideo 10 Overview
Video and audio codecs are required for efficient delivery and successful enjoyment of the highest quality digital media experience. Real's newest codecs, RealVideo 10 and RealAudio 10 are widely distributed and used worldwide to provide consumers with the highest quality experience at the lowest possible bitrates.
RealAudio 10
RealAudio 10 provides extremely high audio quality and network efficiencies at the broadest range of the bit rate spectrum. By scaling from 12 - 800 Kbps, RealAudio 10 achieves the highest quality sound at the widest possible bandwidth range.
At bitrates over 128 kbps RealAudio 10 incorporates the standards-based and widely used MPEG-4 AAC codec. This enables the highest quality listening experience for consumer music services, as well as easy transfer and playback compatibility to the extensive range of portable and mobile devices that support AAC. RealAudio 10 incorporates the RealAudio codec for bitrates less than 128 kbps and is renowned for delivering near CD audio quality at 64 kbps.
RealAudio 10 also includes the RealAudio Lossless, RealAudio Multichannel and RealAudio Voice codecs. RealAudio Lossless provides 100% perfect fidelity reproduction of audio at less than half the size of the original file. This breakthrough lossless codec is ideal for professional and archiving services, as well as for those music enthusiasts and audiophiles who demand the ultimate fidelity. RealAudio Multichannel provides a true multichannel surround-sound experience, which is ideal for home theater and multichannel entertainment systems. RealAudio Voice is designed for use at very low bitrates below 15 kbps.
RealVideo 10
RealVideo 10, Real's newest video codec, provides a dramatic improvement over our previous generation codecs. With the same quality at 30% lower bitrate than the previous RealVideo 9 codec, RealVideo 10 performs complex analysis during the encoding process to create compressed video with superior visual quality that results in the playback of RealVideo 10 content on any RealVideo 9 decoder. The bitstream format of RealVideo 10 is the same as RealVideo 9. Existing implementations require no new code development. Because no new decoder is required it means immediately that the worldwide installed base of Helix DNA Clients and RealPlayers is able to playback RealVideo 10 without users having to download anything, and that chip manufacturers who already have a RealVideo 9 decoder need not do anything either.
If you are considering licensing RealAudio and/or RealVideo codecs for commercial use, you will be required to pass the RealAudio/RealVideo Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK) prior to shipping your product.
For embedded device developers with very limited hardware resources as well as those looking to integrate RealAudio and RealVideo with existing media frameworks, the Real Format SDK offers a "C" based SDK detached from Helix DNA Client architecture. The Real Format SDK covers RealMedia file format, RDT (RealNetworks transport protocol), RealChallenge (RealNetworks authentication), network payload parsers and decoders for RealAudio and RealVideo as well as detailed documentation. The Real Format SDK is only available to licensees of the Real Format Source Code Porting And Optimization License (see below)
Licensing RealAudio & RealVideo Codecs
Licensing the RealAudio and RealVideo codecs is easy. There are two types of licenses:
- Research & Development
- Commercial Use
Research & Development Licenses
R & D licenses for RealAudio and RealVideo are no-cost and allow you to have access to the source code for the codecs:
Real Format Source Code Porting And Optimization License - Client: This allows for R&D use of source code for the specific purpose of porting and optimizing the RealAudio and RealVideo decoders, as well as the ".rm" File Format and the RDT transport code.
Once your license submission is approved, you will be sent instructions on how to access the source code site for RealAudio and RealVideo and Real Format SDK (note: these pages are restricted and only accessible to licensees).
Commercial Use Licenses
To distribute the RealAudio/RealVideo codecs commercially, you'll need license below:
Commercial Use License For Helix DNA Client and/or RealAudio or RealVideo - Allows commercial use of products derived from the Helix DNA Client with RealAudio and RealVideo. This agreement enables you to deploy or distribute the RealAudio codec, RealVideo codec, the ".rm" file format, and the RDT transport with or without the Helix DNA Client.
Helix DNA Technology Licenses
The Helix Community caters to many constituencies, each of which has
different goals in addition to a shared objective of extending the
Helix
platform. To allow individuals, developers and their respective
organizations
the maximum flexibility, we have multiple licenses, each tailored to a
different constituency and their needs.
The Helix DNA and Real codec source code is currently available for
R&D purposes
under either OSI approved open source
licenses or commercial
licenses. These licenses have
differing obligations
that range from code sharing obligations to commercial royalty
payments.