Release VTs to opensource

[AndrewDV]

Do you think it would be possible for Matrox to release the Win2K VT code to opensource?

[wkulecz]

Never gonna happen.

Think of the embarassment to matrox when some hacker does what they couldn't.

--wally.

[This_Idiot]

And reverse-engineering their drivers is against the licensing agreement, so I can't imagine that anyone would try that.

It's already been mooted on another thread that there are plenty of hobbyists here on the forum that would take pleasure in delving into the depths of the capture drivers, I hope they know what they'd be letting themselves in for. Apart from anything else, they'd need to be equipped with the HW specifications of the Zoran chipset, something that (apparently) Matrox don't have themselves - although I find that difficult to believe, if their own corporate lawyers couldn't protect them from such an obvious project risk then they deserve the sack !

Needless to say, I'll be happy to help out in any way I can. Oh, I don't do machine code. Or VB. Or C. If you need Cobol then I'm yer man, and I could also sort out a CM solution for centralising code control.

[Ant]

It's already being done without help from Matrox. There has been an opensource project to bring Marvel/RRG support to Linux for some time that is going very well. All the needed specs are out there.

http://marvel.sourceforge.net/

There are also the MJPEG Tools that support Zoran based cards.

http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net/

[Dr Mordrid]

And in Linux you don't have to deal with the translation layer or other M$ related nightmares.

Most of this problem is because of M$'s floating "standards". You design product(s) for one standard and then they change horses to a totally new and unrelated system in the next OS they produce.

Of course that requires M$ to create an interface between the two that conveniently doesn't work as advertised.

Wonderful....

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 31 May 2001).]

[This_Idiot]

Thanks for that Ant,it's a good start.

If anyone is serious enough to start taking this on board then let me know (my email is available on the icons above this post). I'll be happy to monitor/co-ordinate efforts as necessary if there are enough qualified people out there prepared to make the investment of their time.

[AlgoRhythm]

Consider it begun....

As soon as I read the announcement yesterday, I made sure to download all the recent drivers from Matrox, and ddk's from MS. I've got the code from the Linux project. I'm not saying this is going to happen really quick, but, I'm willing to take a crack at it. It's been a while since I had a project that looked this fun!

BTW, I'll reverse-engineer whatever I care to. There are several court precedents of the right to reverse-engineer.


AlgoRhythm

[moreau]

AlgoRhythm:
Just make sure you are a true "virgin".

[Technoid]

AlgoRhythm,

I can amlmost forsee that if you get some drivers that work Matrox instantly will try to take you out of biz , just to cover up their embarasment of not being able to do what you probably can

[Ant]

They can't or just won't? I really doubt that they couldn't do it if they wanted to, or shall we say certain people wanted them to.

[Technoid]

What's most weird is that they say:

"We coulden't do it so in 3 weeks we will released stripped drivers..."

IF they coulden't do it, why coulden't they have started on the stripped drivers 2 months ago so they could have released someting??

I don't belive that the tried in wain until the last of may to produce stable mjpeg drivers...

All of this still seems a lot like a X-files show..

Using an inzane amount of time to build up the tension and expectations and then deside to not deliver the exitment..