[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] Dynamic filtergraph reconfiguration

[Stefano Sabatini]

Hi,

maybe it's time to finally tackle this, since it seems to be a
recurring issue.

Sometimes the input of the filterchain changes configuration
parameters. For audio it means it could change channel layout/sample
rate/sample format/timebase, for video it may change frame rate, size,
pixel format, sample aspect ratio and timebase.

Basically most filters assume these values to be invariant during the
whole life of the filtergraph, others (e.g. the scale filter) monitors
*some* of the input values and reconfigure themselves accordingly,
sometimes calling configure on the following filters (which may or may
not be correct). We need to make reconfiguration consistently applied
at the framework level, and properly design it, in order to avoid
brittle code and glitches.

Problems to tackle are:
- not all filters may support reconfigurations, for example some
  filters rely on some specific values defined during configuration,
  so in general we need a mechanism which allows to reconfigure only
  the filters which can do that

- some filters may support only *one* parameter change (e.g. timebase
  may easily change).

- since we don't mark codecs/containers which support variable
  configuration parameters (do we?), we may need to "normalize" the
  output before the terminal sink (depending on the application).

Related questions: where should we check the changes (possibly in the
framework code)? Where should we add the "buffer" filters which
normalize input towards a "non-reconfigurable" filter (possibly we
should auto-insert it only when required).

Filter supporting reconfiguration should be marked as such (or
alternatively we may mark filters *not* supporting it). Also I wonder
if we should also support filters where the *number* of inputs or
outputs change dinamically (e.g. a movie source which adds a new
stream).

I'll try to come with a more detailed design and proof of concept once
we'll clear some of the design issues.
-- 
FFmpeg = Frightening and Faithful Murdering Pacific Explosive Guru