[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] the future of libamr

[Benoit Fouet]

On 05/20/2009 11:55 AM, Diego Biurrun wrote:
> On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 11:01:48AM +0200, Benoit Fouet wrote:
>   
>> On 05/19/2009 07:38 PM, Diego Biurrun wrote:
>>     
>>> Now that OpenCORE AMR support is just around the corner, what about
>>> libamr?  I'm in favor of removing support for it.  It's nonfree and it's
>>> crap and we have a free replacement.
>>>
>>> There is a catch: libamr supports AMR-WB encoding, OpenCORE does not.
>>> IMO we can disregard this.  Hopefully it will spur the development of a
>>> native replacement.  I do not plan to remove libamr support from the 0.5
>>> branch, so it will always be available there.
>>>       
>> or we can only keep the support of the WB encoder, depending on non-free
>> flag ?
>>     
>
> You don't think keeping it in the 0.5 branch will be enough?

it might be... I may be speaking for people who do not exist anyway
(users of AMR-WB encoding feature)

>   I think
> removing non-free components from FFmpeg should be a high-priority goal
> and this is the last one, barring the libfaac disaster...
>
>   

in that I think we all agree :)

>> I'm not sure that the people who need WB encoder are the one who are
>> going to write a free WB encoder anyway :)
>>     
>
> Who is going to write it or fund writing it then?  If it is cheap, good
> enough and available, nobody might be motivated.  Look at how long we
> have had to put up with libfaad and Adobe Flash...
>
>   

I'm not sure it is that useful nowadays.
the main use for it was for phones, I guess, when AAC decoders were not
that common.

the more I think about it, the more I think you're right. Just drop it,
it will still be available in 0.5 if people should need it anyway.

Ben