Re: [Gnash-dev] How to support ffmpeg?

[Tomas Groth]

--- Rob Savoye <address@hidden> skrev:

> Tomas Groth wrote:
> 
> 
> > 1) Include ffmpeg in gnash.
> > pros: No more need to support old and outdated versions of ffmpeg. (Wohoo!)
> > cons: There might be some IP/patent-issues... We'll need to keep our own
> > ffmpeg-tree up to date.
> 
>   There are multiple legal issues, which is why we can't do this
> approach. To include ffmpeg in Gnash, we'd basically be the ones doing a
> ffmpeg release, but it would become Gnash specific. We have similar
> problems with Gstreamer, the released versions often don't have the
> functionality we need. I've made the mistake of having to support my own
> slightly divergent source tree of others people's packages (Tcl, Tk,
> Expect), and have regretted it.

I guess i knew the legal problems would ne an issue :(
About Gstreamer vs. ffmpeg, i wouldn't compare them like that, since Gstreamer
has periodic releases, but don't even (afaik) have the functionality we need in
CVS, while ffmpeg has the needed functionality in SVN, but doesn't make
releases at all.

(I guess that means: Don't worry about releases == good functionality ;) )

> 
> > 2) Help the ffmpeg-team to do some periodic releases.
> > pros: The whole world will start celebrating, because finally ffmpeg has
> > releases! Gnash can require real release versions, instead of svn numbers.
> > cons: In the short term it's still the same mess. Helping out with
> > ffmpeg-releases is going to require a lot of time! (any volunteer?)
> 
>   I think we should do two things. The first is to make sure we can use
> the existing installed ffmpeg packages in a new distro, like FC6, Etch,
> or Edgy. Maybe we lose some functionality this way, but then we don't
> have to worry about ffmpeg. I guess I'd like to be educated on the
> differences between the CVS versions of ffmpeg and gstreamer and the
> released versions.

So we should just agree that people using old versions of distroes are on their
own? It's fine by me, but we need to agree on this. Maybe even make a list of
supported distroes.

As mentioned above ffmpeg doesn't make releases, and the last real releases is
really outdated and shouldn't be used. Most distros choose a fairly stable SVN
snapshot and includes it. Though the commercial backed (fedora, mandriva, etc.)
distroes doesn't pack ffmpeg at all because of the potential legal problems.
There are unofficial repositories including ffmpeg. 

Gstreamers CVS and release versions are not too different. Afaik there has not
been implemented any of the features we need since the latest release, but feel
free to correct me.

[snip]

> 
>   I think for folks building Gnash out of CVS, requiring the CVS sources
> of a few dependent libraries like ffmpeg is ok, but we can't really do
> an official Gnash release until the functionality in those other
> libraries are in a standard released package.
> 
That could take a while...

cheers,

Tomas


        
        
                
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