>Is h264 safe now to implement in things without being surprised by someone hitting you with some license fee or patent royalty? What is the status in it?
I assume you mean to be included in things where things is either software or hardware? For software you get that for free from pretty much every single shipping PC, Smartphone or Tablet. So you really shouldn't implement it yourself. For hardware you still need to paid a tiny license fees ( which is why RPi 5 doesn't include it )
If you ignore extensions like SVC (Scalable Video Coding) and MVC (Multiview Video Coding) where most people dont use it. The normal H.264, especially baseline and Main Profile will have 99% of its patents expired within next 3-4 years.
I assume you mean to be included in things where things is either software or hardware? For software you get that for free from pretty much every single shipping PC, Smartphone or Tablet. So you really shouldn't implement it yourself. For hardware you still need to paid a tiny license fees ( which is why RPi 5 doesn't include it )
If you ignore extensions like SVC (Scalable Video Coding) and MVC (Multiview Video Coding) where most people dont use it. The normal H.264, especially baseline and Main Profile will have 99% of its patents expired within next 3-4 years.