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Theora is a video codec being developed by the Xiph.org Foundation as part of their Ogg project. Based upon On2 Technologies' VP3 codec, and christened by On2 as the successor in VP3's lineage, Theora is targeted at competing with MPEG-4 video (e.g., XviD and DivX), RealVideo, Windows Media Video, and similar lower-bitrate video compression schemes.

Theora is still in developmental stages with Xiph.org having made three alpha releases thus far.

The first beta release Beta-1 is expected later in 2004. Theora is released under the terms of a BSD-style license.

While VP3 is patented technology, On2 has irrevocably given royalty-free license of the VP3 patents to all of humanity, enabling the public to utilize Theora and other VP3-derived codecs for any imaginable purpose.

In the Ogg multimedia framework, Theora provides a video layer, while VorbisVorbis is a completely open and free audio compression ( codec) project from the Xiph. org Foundation. It is frequently used in conjunction with the Ogg container and is then called Ogg Vorbis . Vorbis was started following a September 1998 letter from Fr acts as the audio layer.

Theora is named for Theora JonesTheora Jones is a fictional character on the television show Max Headroom''. She was played by Amanda Pays Theora was Network 23's star controller and, working with the network's star reporter, Edison Carter, she often helped save the day for everyone., Edison CarterEdison Carter was one of the main characters in the science fiction television series Max Headroom''. A hard-hitting reporter for Network 23, he sometimes came closer to the truth than his superiors liked. Of course, if it had not been for that, there wou's Controller on the Max HeadroomMax Headroom was the name of a fictional television character in the late 1980s and a science fiction television series featuring him. Character The Max Headroom character started in 1985 as an announcer for a music video program on British television Cha television program.

1 History

September 6, 2001
On2 releases the source code to their libraries for VP3 under the terms of the VP3.2 Public License.
March 27, 2002
On2's founder and CTO, Dan Miller, sends an email to vorbis-dev announcing On2's interest in collaborating with the Xiph.org Foundation and relicensing VP3 under the terms of the LGPL.
June 24, 2002
On2 and the Xiph.org Foundation announce their alliance to develop Ogg Theora: the integration of VP3 with the Ogg framework and Vorbis. See also On2's press release.
September 25, 2002
Theora Alpha One is released. See also On2's press release.
December 16 and December 27, 2002
Theora Alpha Two is released in two stages.
May 18, 2003
Published VP3 legacy codec binaries.
June 9, 2003
Theora reference implementation Alpha Two is released.
January 23, 2004
Milestone 2 release of the RealNetworks Helix player includes preliminary support for Ogg Theora. Milestone 3, scheduled release in April 2004, is planned to provide complete support. See also the status at helixcommunity.org
March 20, 2004
Theora reference implementation Alpha Three is released.
May 10, 2004
Theora/ Vorbis plug-in version 0.2 for the Windows version of RealPlayer is released. Download it from helixcommunity.org.
June 1, 2004
The Theora bitstream format has been frozen. It has not been changed from Alpha Three. So it is guaranteed that all files encoded using Alpha Three (or any later version) will be supported by future decoders.


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