The Real Cost Of Licensing H.264: Pricing And Licensing Terms

Whenever StreamingMedia.com publishes an article on the subject of H.264, I get a lot of e-mails from readers saying that the licensing costs of H.264 are too expensive or are just too complex to even figure out. Those who sell proprietary codecs use the perception of H.264 licensing
as a labyrinthian ordeal as an ideal marketing tool to complement the
proprietary technology's "simple" license.

So what does H.264 cost to license? And is the licensing cost as complex to figure out as competitors make it out to be? To help clear up a lot of the confusion, StreamingMedia.com has just published an article by Tim Siglin about H.264 licensing costs breaking out the real numbers and how the different licenses are calculated. If you've always wanted to know the costs and licensing terms, this is a great article to read.