[FFmpeg-devel] Bug#729203: RFP: ffmpeg -- complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video

[Rogério Brito]

Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist

Hi.

As I anticipate a lot of discussion and bikeshedding on this bug report, I
am going to preface it with some information. I am including some people
that may be interested parties in the CC'ies.

Motivated by Debian's bug #729147 being closed, by the fact that some
software either needs or recommends ffmpeg (see below), I think that Debian
should provide the *option* of using ffmpeg instead of libav to its users.

ffmpeg has many features that libav lacks and it is, as I understand it, the
set of ffmpeg's features are a strict superset of that of libav's.

When I read that libav was going to be forked, I thought that, given the
non-explicit reports on what happened at the time, it was a good thing. A
few years later, I think that I was wrong and libav doesn't suit me as both
a user and a package of other programs.

Just off the top of my head, here are some packages that either depend on or
recommend ffmpeg (sometimes, embedding their own copy of ffmpeg):

* mpv: https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/wiki/FFmpeg-versus-Libav#situation-today
* xbmc: http://xbmc.org/xbmc-13-gotham-april-and-may-cycles/
* mythtv: https://github.com/MythTV/mythtv/tree/master/mythtv/external
* chromium: http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=contents&keywords=libffmpegsumo.so

You can see a reply to Josh Triplett at http://bugs.debian.org/721317#18
pointing out some extra arguments.

This bug, in fact, is more of an Intent to Package than a Request for
Package, but I will leave it as a RFP because I don't really know if I will
have the enthusiasm to sustain the packaging during long times. What I *do*
know is that, whenever I hit a limitation with libav, that enthusiasm all of
a sudden comes back.

I don't want any flamewar or anything. I just want to use my computer to do
things that it currently doesn't.

So, without further ado, here goes the skeleton of the RFP/ITP:

----

* Package name    : ffmpeg
  Version         : 2.1
  Upstream Author : Name <somebody at example.org>
* URL             : http://ffmpeg.org/
* License         : GPL, LGPL
  Programming Lang: C
  Description     : complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video


-- 
Rogério Brito : rbrito@{ime.usp.br,gmail.com} : GPG key 4096R/BCFCAAAA
http://rb.doesntexist.org/blog : Projects : https://github.com/rbrito/
DebianQA: http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=rbrito%40ime.usp.br