Section 5 of 6
Four generations, four arguments
MPEG-2 on disc, H.264 everywhere, HEVC in the pools, AV1 built to escape them.
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MPEG-2 was good enough because the disc was big
The DVD-Video spec could afford MPEG-2's inefficiency because it had 4.7 gigabytes to spend. The constraint moved when the disc did.
Medium -
HEVC arrived tangled in more than one patent pool
HEVC's licensing fragmented across competing pools, which slowed adoption enough to create the opening AV1 was built for.
Long -
The disc stopped being the unit of measurement
When delivery moved to streaming, the question changed from what fits on a disc to what survives a variable connection.
Medium