[MPlayer-dev-eng] Binary codecs

[Ivo]

On Saturday 20 November 2004 02:48, Roberto Togni wrote:
> 1) Add binary codecs for formats we can decode natively?

IMO only if our native support isn't up to par yet.

> 2) Add binary codecs for format already supported by other binary
> codecs?

Sort of like above. If the other binary codec works well, there's no need to 
add another. Otherwise, add it.

> 3) Add all variants of the same codec (ex. vfw and dshow)?

I see configure accepts --(en|dis)able-dshow and --(en|dis)able-win32. I'm 
not familiar with the win32 dll loading stuff in MPlayer, but if it's 
possible to compile MPlayer with either vfw _or_ dshow support but not 
both, I'd say yes. If it's all the same, as in, you have Win32 DLL support 
or not (vfw/dshow/etc or nothing at all), I'd say no.

> The second question is about demo/trial codecs: support them or not?
> As an example, now we have an expired m3jpeg.dll in our codec package;
> Cesar submitted an updated codec that solve the problem, at least until
> the codec expires again.
> What to do? Try to keep the dll up to date (if possible), drop the
> codec, patch the dll/the loader to "fix" the expiration problem?

I think refreshing the dll every now and then is bad. It might be refreshed 
in the tar.gz on mphq, but it's not on the users computer and will stop 
working after a week/month/whatever. Patching the DLL to stop expiring 
might be an option, although that is cracking imo. Don't know how many 
non-free DLL's there are in the win32-codec pack already. If that's not 
considered a problem with an GPL video player, go ahead. If only 
free-for-download binary codecs are in there (no cracking; maybe a small 
patch to make it work with our dll-loading architecture), then we should 
not include cracked trial codecs.

As for demo codecs (unlimited use, but limited functionality), we should 
only include those if there's no other codec (binary or native) that can 
decode that format.

> If you care about binary codecs, please give your opinion on the
> matters.

Well, here it is :)

--Ivo