[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] drop libamr support

[Roberto Togni]

On Fri, 4 Jan 2008 21:21:24 +0100
Diego Biurrun <diego at biurrun.de> wrote:

> I've been thinking about libamr again while handling the SaffronEncoder
> and I am thinking more and more that we should drop libamr support
> outright.
> 
> [Reminder: libamr is copyrighted without any kind of license grant.   As
> a consequence it is non-free and unredistributable.]
> 
> Whatever binaries are created with libamr support are unredistributable.

That's ok, we're not redistributing it (not the library nor FFmpeg
binary with the library linked into it).

> Nonetheless many are created and redistributed and I fear that most
> people are not doing this on purpose but are blissfully unaware of the
> consequences.
> 

That's their problem.
If I understand configure correctly (hint: the default on/off status for
libamr is not shown in configure help), libamr is disabled by
default. To use it you have to download and install libamr and enable
it on configure commandline.

> Another point is that while there is a convenient way to hook up libamr

Originally you had to explicitly download the amr codecs and add them
in the source tree, but this was replaced with support for some wrapper
libraries that do all the work for you...

> in FFmpeg the incentive to implement a native replacement will be low.
> 

Patch welcome ;)

> I fear we are not doing anybody a favor with what we currently have and
> that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.
> 
> Anybody who desperately needs AMR support can go back to a revision with
> libamr support, people who wish to compare native replacements with the
> reference lib can do the same.
> 

No he can't. Older versions are not supported, and I doubt that many
players will be able to work with one or two months old ffmpeg
(MPlayer for sure can't).
Or do you expect somebody to write an amr NB/WB decoder and encoder in a
few days?

> I vote for removing libamr.
> 

I don't. I only see the "long term pain" in doing it.


Ciao,
 Roberto

-- 
If it's not broken, don't fix it.