[Bf-committers] FFMPEG, we need decision!

[Jean-Luc Peurière]

Le 29 juin 06 à 13:54, Ton Roosendaal a écrit :

> Hi all,
>
> I am very confused about the current status of ffmpeg in Blender.  
> It's a bit awkward to do all of this just before the release, in  
> CVS freeze period.
>
> Nevertheless, movie/audio support in Linux Blender was very much  
> behind the OSX/Windows versions, so for Linux we could treat this  
> as a crucial release target.
>
> My proposal is to at least add this to the Linux release, and have  
> the other platform maintainers decide themselves whether or not to  
> include it in this release. Unresolved is:
> - Library size issue (what is is what not)
> - Scons/make support
> - Stable compile in windows
> - testing to compare ffmpeg with quicktime/libavicodec in osx/windows
>
> DJ Capelis: was ffmpeg now in RC2 or not? If not, can you make a  
> RC3 then?
>
> Peter: I would really like to see a doc about ffmpeg support in  
> Blender. In wiki I can only find the old proposal here:
> http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BlenderDev/FFMpegIntegration
>
> Maybe another Linux user could help with a good doc?
>
> -Ton-
Status on Os X :

- some new features users want in sequencer are tied to ffmpeg. from  
there either we add quicktime support or we include ffmpeg
- ffmpeg compiles and link fine on Os X with the makefiles provided.
- adding scons support of existing libs (done with make or added in  
CVS) is straightforward and pose no problem, i will do it this weekend
- getting proper scons compiling will take longer

however the issues are as following :

- the provided options make the lib huge (2.4 Mb) because many  
unvanted codecs are in (you need to use the include-gpl flags, and  
this one
   include in turn all OSS codecs it can). you then need to disable  
all codecs and add back only those you need. Problem for me, as i've no
   interest in video/audio codecs, i dont know what we need really in  
the 164 long list. so, someone who know this stuff should really qive me
  a definitive list of codecs and/or compile options.
- some wanted codecs are compiled but dont work because additional  
libs are not provided (eg FAAC), those could also be handled in
   quicktime with no overhead
- sequencer bother only about an handfull of formats so having  
everything and its litlle sister is a bit too much, we are not  
redoing VLC or
   mplayer here.

from my point of view :

- lib is indeed crucial for linux. ffmpeg can be either static or  
dynamic
- for others, the problem is more being able to read and write from  
the available video/audio lib. that it is quicktime or ffmpeg is not the
   question.

   in this case compilation of ffmpeg must be static from a reference  
in our CVS as ffmpeg dont have proper releases.
   IMHO the lib should then be minimal and support only what is  
needed, (which may include somm add-on libs).
   quicktime support too of these new features would be great

 From the tests i did, it works pretty well on the formats it can  
use, but some sounds were read at an improper sampling rate.

I can do a ffmpeg release for Os X, but the binary will be probably a  
bit bigger than i would wish.

We really need  a full regression test suite for the whole sequencer  
(at least one copy of all codecs in read/write)

Lukep