[asterisk-users] G.729.1 - any interest?

[John Todd]

On Jan 14, 2009, at 12:27 PM, Steve Underwood wrote:

> John Todd wrote:
>> The G.729.1 "wideband" codec is starting to show a slight bit of
>> traction.  There is a possibility that Asterisk could support G.729.1
>> - would you use it or buy it if it was available?  More importantly,
>> does any equipment with which your systems currently exchange traffic
>> support G.729.1?  Currently, the number of devices supporting G.729.1
>> seems to be fairly limited and it may be an imbalanced decision to
>> support a codec that nobody else uses.
>>
>> If G.729.1 were to be offered as a codec for Asterisk by Digium, it
>> would have to be as a commercial product, as the codec is patent-
>> encumbered.  Pricing and licensing terms are outside the scope of  
>> this
>> discussion, but I would expect something like G.729.  Of course,
>> passthrough-mode (non-transcoding) would not require licensing with
>> Asterisk and is outside of the scope of this question.  Timing is  
>> also
>> an unknown issue - there are obviously many other projects in the
>> pipeline for the Digium engineering team to work on before this
>> probably could be completed, even if the decision is made to pursue a
>> development effort.
>>
>>
>> Note that G.722 is free and already available, and may have similar
>> MOS scores (but certainly not exactly similar) as that of G.729.1.
>> Comparisons of G.729.1 and G.722 are left as exercises to the reader,
>> or see the excellent presentation below which is quite enlightening.
>>
>> Your opinions are welcome on the topic!
>>
>> Resources:
>> http://portal.etsi.org/stq/workshop2007presentations/quinquis_slides.pdf
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.729.1
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.722
>>
>> [Apologies for the cross-post - this has some interest to both the
>> user and development community, I think.  I'll also apologize for  
>> what
>> is a post about issues that are not "open-source", but it seems that
>> within Digium I'm probably the most appropriate person to canvass the
>> community on this particular question, as it involves gauging the
>> general thinking of the VoIP community and is not merely a Digium- 
>> only
>> concern.]
>>
> Where have you seen it getting traction? France Telecom came up with  
> it,
> and are using it, but that's kind of isolated from the rest of the
> universe. The PDF you referenced is little more than a France Telecoms
> sales pitch for G.729.1. Audiocodes announced something, but its vague
> and they aren't shipping yet. AMR-WB would make more sense, as 3G
> cellphones all use it, and transcoding these things looses huge  
> amounts
> of quality. G.722.1 is also getting somewhere, largely because of
> Polycom's commitment to it.
>
> The really wacky one is G.711.1. Has anyone heard of people taking  
> that
> seriously.
>
> Regards,
> Steve



"slight bit" = Audiocodes, and SPIRIT DSP code on some TI chips.   
Others?  I don't know, I'd be interested in seeing if so.

G.711.1 is still a ghost codec, from what I've been able to see.

JT


---
John Todd                       email:jtodd at digium.com
Digium, Inc. | Asterisk Open Source Community Director
445 Jan Davis Drive NW -  Huntsville AL 35806  -   USA
direct: +1-256-428-6083         http://www.digium.com/