Microsoft demonstrates JPEG rival
Microsoft presented Windows Media Photo a competitor for the JPEG image format at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference.
Windows Media Photo will be supported in Windows Vista and also be made available for Windows XP.
According to Microsoft's Bill Crow, program manager for Windows Media Photo, one of the biggest reasons people upgrade their PCs is digital photos. He also noted that Microsoft has been in contact with printer makers, digital camera companies and other unnamed industry partners while working on Windows Media Photo. Microsoft positions managing digital photos as one of the key attributes of XP successor Vista.
In his presentation, Crow showed an image with 24:1 compression that visibly contained more detail in the Windows Media Photo format than the JPEG and JPEG 2000 formats compressed at the same level.
Still, the image in the Microsoft format was somewhat distorted because of the high compression level. Typically digital cameras today use 6:1 compression, Crow said. Windows Media Photo should offer better pictures at double that level, he said. "We can do it in half the size of a JPEG file."
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