Goodbye Codec Format Problems?

Published on 24 November 2014 by Mirja Fürst.

MOX is an open-source format for video and audio files that is intended to enable virtually lossless exchange between different applications as an intermediate codec.

Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 24, 2014. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.

For smooth exchange, the MOX format supports a high sampling and data rate, various bit depths of 8, 10, 12 and 16 through to floating point, and high resolutions. Although there have already been similar codec approaches, they either support only some bit depths, do not work across different platforms, or require developers to pay licence fees because they are not open source.

According to developer Brendan Bolles, MOX, by contrast, is intended to run consistently on OSX, Windows, Linux and other operating systems and contain an open-source C++ library intended to ensure that every programme used can load MOX files.

The format codec was realised and financed through an Indiegogo campaign; the funding target of at least 20,000 US dollars was reached on November 19 with around 30,000 US dollars. With the additional 10,000 US dollars, Bolles will now also develop an Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Nuke plug-in so that MOX can be loaded faster.

Brendan Bolles previously worked at the VFX studio The Orphanage on films such as "Planet Terror" and "Superman Returns".

In this video, the four developers explain more about their MOX plans and their problems with previous codec formats: