Re: [gentoo-dev] RFC News item: FFmpeg default

[Ian Delaney]

On Tue, 7 Apr 2015 07:13:16 +0800
Ben de Groot <yngwin@g.o> wrote:

> On 6 April 2015 at 17:35, Michał Górny <mgorny@g.o> wrote:
> > Dnia 2015-04-06, o godz. 14:10:12
> > Ben de Groot <yngwin@g.o> napisał(a):
> >
> >> On 30 March 2015 at 00:23, Michał Górny <mgorny@g.o> wrote:
> >> > Dnia 2015-03-30, o godz. 00:07:16
> >> >
> >> > Include example code.
> >> >
> >>
> >> Updated version:
> >>
> >> Title: FFmpeg default
> >> Author: Ben de Groot <yngwin@g.o>
> >> Content-Type: text/plain
> >> Posted: 2015-04-07
> >> Revision: 1
> >> News-Item-Format: 1.0
> >> Display-If-Installed: media-video/ffmpeg
> >> Display-If-Installed: media-video/libav
> >>
> >> Since the choice between ffmpeg and libav has been made more
> >> explicit, there has been a lot of discussion about what the
> >> default implementation should be. It can be concluded that
> >> media-video/ffmpeg has wider support, and would be somewhat
> >> more convenient for most end-users.
> >>
> >> For this reason the default implementation has been switched
> >> back from media-video/libav to media-video/ffmpeg by removing
> >> the libav useflag from the base profile.
> >
> > 'Switched back' is suggesting there was some 'unintentional' switch
> > from ffmpeg to libav. Keep this free of politics, and just
> > 'switched'.
>
> No, it does not suggest that. It simply reflects the history of the
> issue: once upon a time we had ffmpeg. Then libav was introduced and
> at some point made the default implementation. Now we are switching
> back to ffmpeg as default implementation. There is no politics in my
> statement.
>
> >
> > This is off-topic, and strongly biased.
>
> The original statement may give the impression that mpv is to libav
> what mplayer is to ffmpeg. Many users were surprised to find out that
> mpv upstream actually recommends ffmpeg, and that some of mpv's
> features do not work with libav. If we are going to specifically
> recommend mpv, then it is something users need to be aware of.
>
> We could change it to: media-video/mpv works with both ffmpeg and
> libav, though some of its features require ffmpeg. Or something along
> those lines.
>
> >>  Please do not alter the state of 'libav' flag on a per-package
> >> basis (e.g. via package.use). The flag needs to be set globally to
> >> have
> >
> > FYI: since Council's meeting in one week, I have added this to
> > the agenda. I'm really concerned about Gentoo's PR when users suffer
> > due to developers ping-ponging implementations/defaults.
>

> It's not so much ping-ponging as stumbling upon what is the best
> solution for our users. Some years ago libav was made a soft default.
> And if I recall correctly, that was done with very little discussion.
> Recently this default was made harder by adding USE=libav to the base
> profile. This resulted in quite a backlash from users.
>
> Moreover, many upstreams of consuming packages actually prefer ffmpeg.
> Add to that the upstream ffmpeg policy of merging in changes from
> libav.
>
> All in all, from an end-user point of view it makes more sense to have
> ffmpeg as default. And when users were asked, they overwhelmingly
> expressed support for changing the default to ffmpeg.
>
> I see no reason to stick with libav as default, except political
> (which I'm trying to avoid here).
>

+1

-- 
kind regards

Ian Delaney