[FFmpeg-devel] Project orientation

[Kieran Kunhya]

> x264 is practically feature complete, but x262 still miss some things,
> like 4:2:2 interlaced. Sure, x262 can work well enough for some use cases,
> but it is still not packaged in e.g. Ubuntu, so users are stuck with the
> - in some ways - inferior mpeg2 encoder of ffmpeg.
>
> The point I am trying to make is that you and some other people made a
> fast and modern mpeg2 encoder, in some ways superior to existing open
> source alternatives, but very few people is using it because it was not
> merged to a bigger/more popular project like x264 or ffmpeg. So it
> receives no mainteance, no distribution support, no user base and
> ultimately no further development. Or at least that is how I see it.

People aren't using it because people don't use MPEG-2.
There is no maintenance to be done on a format that's 25 years old, do
you want me to randomly change cosmetics to make you feel happy?
I know of people using it 24/7 for many years and have had no issues.

Have you opened bug reports on x264-devel about the issues you see?
MPEG-2 4:2:2 interlaced users are infinitesimally small and professional users.
If you want your pet feature to work, lo and behold you have to work
on it or pay someone to work on it.
If you want people to work on it out of nowhere then you are part of
the Free Rider Problem:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-rider_problem

x264 is heavily used but the changes these days are very minor in
spite of all these things. So your argument is incorrect.

Kieran