Blu-ray Focus Grows Within FFmpeg Project

Earlier this week Google had published their list of 2009 Summer of Code projects and FFmpeg was among them. Last week we published an interview with the FFmpeg developers where we learned more about their v0.5 release and other topics like OpenCL, Blu-ray, and multi-threading. Since running that interview, where it was found that Blu-ray wasn't actively being worked on due in part to a lack of hardware, a number of readers have stepped up and offered Blu-ray drives and media to help developers, which may result in Blu-ray support coming sooner rather than later.

FFmpeg, which is used by multimedia projects like MPlayer, VLC Media Player, and G-Streamer, may also receive some Blu-ray attention this summer thanks to Google. As one of the possible Google Summer of Code projects for FFmpeg are two items related to Blu-ray support. One of the action items is having an AACS encoder/decoder for FFmpeg and the other is VC-1 interlaced support.

AACS, or Advanced Access Content System, is the DRM used by many Blu-ray discs. This summer project for FFmpeg would involve adding the ability to encode and decode using this digital rights specification. As is noted on their Wiki entry, some parts of the AACS work may not land within FFmpeg but into an independent library. A secondary goal is to also work on CSS encryption and decryption.

When it comes to the VC-1 interlaced support, interlaced streams are used by many Blu-ray movies, but this support is not present in the current FFmpeg VC-1 decoder. More information on that possibility can be found in this entry.

Besides the AACS encoder/decoder, other possible FFmpeg action items of high importance include a S/PDIF muxer, a codec for Flash Screen video 2, and an MPEG-4 ALS decoder.