Nokia releases the source code of its MVC implementation

Nokia announced source code of their MVC codec based on their previous H.264/AVC baseline codec. Since it is baseline profile, only IPPP encoding structure can be used.

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Nokia announced today open availability of its MVC source code implementing H.264/MPEG-4 MVC, a leading multi-view video coding standard created jointly by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of ITU and the Moving Picture Experts Group, MPEG of ISO/IEC. The source code is fully optimized for different uses in mobile devices and includes a player for the Maemo environment, making it easy for developers to take full advantage of the source code in an open, expandable ecosystem.

MVC is the newest addition to highly successful and widely deployed H.264/AVC family of video codecs serving multi-view and 3D video usage. It provides superior network robustness and compression performance for delivering 3D video by e.g. taking advantage of the inter-view dependencies of the different visual channels. In addition, its backwards compatibility with H.264/AVC codecs makes it widely interoperable in environments having both 2D and 3D capable devices.

Nokia acknowledges finalization of the MVC specification and is proud to contribute to the MVC community with this software release. "We are all very excited about this technology and the way it adds a whole new dimension to visual communication and entertainment. We hope this donation helps the developer community to take advantage of the full potential of the MVC technology and stimulates the creation of innovative applications and services", says Jyri Huopaniemi, Director of Nokia Research Center Tampere laboratory.

The software is available for download at: http://research.nokia.com/research/mobile3D. The implementation has also been showcased at Nokia World 2008 using a modified Nokia N800 device with an integrated auto-stereoscopic display for natural real-time 3D video playback.