JPEG Gets a New Competitor

JPEG Gets a New Competitor

Techtree News Staff, Mar 12, 2007 1212 hrs IST

Microsoft has unveiled a new file format for end-to-end digital photography, called HD Photo, which offers better image quality, data preservation.

Microsoft has unveiled a new file format for end-to-end digital photography, called HD Photo, which offers better image quality, better preservation of data, and advanced features for digital-imaging applications.

The company said this new next-generation digital image format provides the best solution for digital image editing and storage, and unleashes potential for digital photography on devices, applications, and services.

Microsoft announced it intends to standardize the technology, and will be submitting HD Photo to an appropriate standards organization shortly.

Talking about it, Amir Majidimehr, Corporate Vice President of Consumer Media Technology Group, Microsoft, said, "With HD Photo, we are taking a new approach to creating and editing photos that simply isn't available to photographers with today's formats. HD Photo fully preserves the original image fidelity with high dynamic range, while allowing for significant improvement in compression size."

HD Photo offers compression with up to twice the efficiency of JPEG, with fewer damaging artifacts, resulting in higher-quality images that are one-half the file size. It also gives increased image fidelity, preserving the entire original image content, and enabling higher-quality exposure and color adjustments in the image.

Microsoft has also announced the beta release of a set of HD Photo plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop software, developed with the help of Adobe Systems. These plug-ins enable users to both read and write HD Photo files from within Adobe Photoshop software, and include support for high dynamic range pixel formats.

The plug-ins support both CS3 and CS2 versions of Adobe Photoshop software, and will be available for Windows Vista and Windows XP, as well as Mac OS X (Universal Binary). A beta version of the Windows plug-in is now available for download at the Microsoft Download Center at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads. And Microsoft expects to release finished plug-ins, which will be free of charge, in approximately 60 days time.

Meanwhile, HD Photo is supported in Windows Vista by a Windows Imaging Component (WIC) codec, and can be similarly supported in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 through a free WIC download. HD Photo is also included in Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0.

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Discussion Board

(12) Comments

sachin pawashe

,mumbai, on Sep 24, 2008 08:06 PM

ROP

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atul

,mumbai, on May 28, 2007 11:27 PM

its nice

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naresh ramini

,hyderabad, on Mar 22, 2007 10:37 PM

i need a price of ur creative speakers 7.1 in indian amount plzzzzzz

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sidk

,Ghaziabad, on Mar 24, 2007 10:03 PM

It around 7K

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Rohit Banseedha

,Mumbai, India, on Mar 23, 2007 05:00 PM

Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft ... its time we think Open Source Open Source, Open Source. Its time to break free. The way MS moves, makes me wonder and think aloud that possibly MS wants to rule - almost everything and owe every RE or $ spent in the World. Time we realise that there is a world out there OUTSIDE MS. Its the story of us, the babies in the well, compared to the huge Open Source, called sea. Wake up call, is'nt it as yet?

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shrikant

,nasik, on Mar 21, 2007 09:07 PM

Its only the muscle power of Microsoft to push their own standards.someone should tell Bill that end users dont have demand for new standards. Jpeg2000 is an excellent file format supported by almost all browsers incl. image viewers like irfan view. manufacturers of cameras should go for this industry std than company (microsoft patented) image format.

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vivek moza

,rishikesh, on Mar 17, 2007 04:06 PM

try to use it better than best

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sent2null

,nyc, on Mar 17, 2007 07:50 AM

Yet another format to try and direct IT towards the big beast. As if jpeg2000 wasn't good enough? Wavelet encoding, multiple compression capabilities, progressive compression, lossless compression is already here and it's free and it's a standard. We don't need any more image compression "standards" from M$. The funny thing about this is that as time goes by and storage availability continues it's exponentional rise the need to compress thing will continue to fall with time. Making the relevance of yet another compression technology even more of a waste of time. But M$ needs to grab on to any potential way to keep it's proprietary ip in in play if it's going to continue the fight against all things open source. Good luck M$, you are going to need it.

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ARUN AHIRE

,MUMABI, on Mar 13, 2007 04:42 AM

GOOD PRODUCT

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Wilvin

,Atlanta, on Mar 12, 2007 04:17 PM

If it does replace jpeg, I'm going to miss jpeg. But what can I say? It was going to happen sometime.

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Anonymous

,hyd, on Mar 12, 2007 09:41 PM

You wouldnt even know . and what is it like missing the jpeg ?