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This reminds me of a tangential matter. The Rasberry Pi has a built in hardware decoder for MPEG-2. You can pay a licensing fee and enable the decoder. This is

This reminds me of a tangential matter. The Rasberry Pi has a built in hardware decoder for MPEG-2. You can pay a licensing fee and enable the decoder. This is despite the fact that the relevant patents on MPEG-2 have expired in the US and much of the world[1]. The issue is that there are still active patents in Malaysia[2]. [1] https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/issues/939 https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/issues/939 [2] https://bryanquigley.com/pages/mpeg2-patent-tracker.html https://bryanquigley.com/pages/mpeg2-patent-tracker.html

Namidairo 6y ago
> The Rasberry Pi has a built in hardware decoder for MPEG-2. Well the older models did, yes. I don't believe the Raspberry Pi 4 has one anymore. (And the CPU can probably handle it just fine as well)
- cheese65536 6y ago
  I regularly use software decoding on the 3B+ for (legally) recorded over-the-air (ATSC) MPEG2 content and it handles 1080i@30 and 720p@60 just fine. For some shows I watch at 150% speed and it still handles it.
dane-pgp 6y ago
That second link is interesting and perhaps needs to be updated given that it says: > Please be aware to renew your patent before this date is reached, or else your patent will become expired. 14 Sep 2020 (and earlier dates for the other 2 patents). Following the link to the MPEG LA site, though, indicates that they believe the Malaysian patents are still valid as of October 2020. https://www.mpegla.com/programs/mpeg-2/patent-list/ https://www.mpegla.com/programs/mpeg-2/patent-list/