FFmpeg Is Returning To Debian

[Krejzi]

Now even gst-libav switched back to ffmpeg. Makes me wonder now, who/what still uses libav today?

[TheCycoONE]

The fork was annoying, with both camps keeping all the same library names, and introducing the same changes at different internal versions. I won't mind not needing to write more code like this:
#if (defined(CORSIX_TH_USE_LIBAV) && LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_INT < AV_VERSION_INT(55, 45, 101)) || (defined(CORSIX_TH_USE_FFMPEG) && LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_INT < AV_VERSION_INT(55, 28, 1))

[Azrael5]

Both libraries are similar, since libav is a fork of ffmpeg, but ffmpeg adds new features, bug and security fixes at a faster rate. So it mainly brings new features, allowing more software to be used on Debian that didn't work with libav, and possibly fixing a few bugs / adding new features with multimedia software (and maybe introducing a few bugs, too).


Another possible impact of this is that libav might die sooner or later. There are close to 0 users after Debian switches away from it.

Thanks for reply.

[TheBlackCat]

So are there any distros still defaulting to libav?

[GreatEmerald]

Yay, finally. Gentoo switched back to it not too long ago too.
Now if only they also switched to libburnia...

[Naib]

Read the Gentoo discussion on this when libAV was made the default (there are levels of default in gentoo and this was a hard default) and the fallout as to why it was bad... not just politics but in practice

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1010096-postdays-0-postorder-asc-start-0.html

[Kano]

ffmpeg instead of libav makes it easier to support kodi, xbmc only worked with some patches. i had no problems to use avconv (the libav replacement for ffmpeg binary) but i think it is the right move. kodi does not even ship with an ffmpeg tree anymore, it is downloaded at compile time if you don't disable it. If you need to decide which to support it is a simple choice - supporting both doubles the work.

[Isedonde]

Some developers weren't happy with how the project was managed.

The ffmpeg main developer is/was apparently a little difficult for some project members to work with. Today, it appears to me as if ffmpeg is developed like most other open source projects, so if there was a problem, that is apparently solved now.

Anyone know if there's been major technical improvements libav team has done to their code base since the split? I haven't really kept up with the details.

Not sure, but ffmpeg pulls in all the commits from libav on a regular basis. So if libav changes something, the same change happens in ffmpeg.

[budric]

I was confused when ffmpeg wasn't available in Ubuntu for a while and replaced with libav. This guy gave a talk why the split happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqNot4csmE#t=24m46s
Some developers weren't happy with how the project was managed.

Anyone know if there's been major technical improvements libav team has done to their code base since the split? I haven't really kept up with the details.

[Isedonde]

Finally! As one who is always very interested in doing AV work on Linux, I have to say the lack of ffmpeg has been a pain for doing anything not in the repos on debian/ubuntu systems.

Ubuntu has had ffmpeg packages for some time now. They pulled it directly from Debian unstable.

What is the impact of this choice?

Both libraries are similar, since libav is a fork of ffmpeg, but ffmpeg adds new features, bug and security fixes at a faster rate. So it mainly brings new features, allowing more software to be used on Debian that didn't work with libav, and possibly fixing a few bugs / adding new features with multimedia software (and maybe introducing a few bugs, too).


Another possible impact of this is that libav might die sooner or later. There are close to 0 users after Debian switches away from it.