FFmpeg and libav

[Reinhard Tartler]

On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 2:23 PM, Romain Bouqueau
<romain.bouqueau.pro at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Debian maintainers,
>
> I'm a contributor on the GPAC multimedia project. I'm writing to you because
> we spend more and more time trying to keep our project compatible with both
> FFmpeg and libav. This is not sustainable.
>
> We would need you to provide both FFmpeg and libav as separate packages in
> Debian. However the libraries/headers in the packages have the same names.
> AFAIU this makes our request impossible to fulfill.
>
> What I see is: most of the work seems to be done at the libav side. However
> FFmpeg works better: it is more stable, the maintainers are more reactive,
> the APIs are more stable and consistent.
>
> This fork causes duplicated work (VLC, MPlayer, GStreamer, GPAC). I think it
> would be a good idea not to involve project contributors in this ego war and
> let them choose whichever is best for their projects.
>
> Note that it was not an issue until the last year because they were still
> fairly compatible. The Debian package maintainers also seem to have kept
> this issue away by installing old libav versions. As projects evolve, we
> need new features from FFmpeg/libav. Thus keeping an old libav is not
> sustainable either.
>
> Does anyone has an idea to improve the situation?

Sorry for the terse answer, but I'm currently in the middle of
relocating from Europe to the US.

My advise would be to focus on Libav, as FFmpeg closely tracks
"upstream", and claims to ensures API/ABI compatibility. Michael
Niedermayer offered repeatedly in the past to merge every development
of Libav into FFmpeg, so that should solve your struggle for good.

Feel free to drop by in #libav-devel if you find some API that is hard
to use or otherwise difficult. There are many nice guys that are happy
listen to your concerns!

Best,
Reinhard


-- 
regards,
    Reinhard