Comments on: FFMpeg strikes (again)

By: noname

noname — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:42:05 +0000

so the ubuntu ffmpeg package lacks swscale.h in the correct place (or vxl looks in the wrong place or doesnt check for swscale.h during configure), and you blame upstream ffmpeg?

By: Does FFmpeg Actually Suck? | Breaking Eggs And Making Omelettes

Does FFmpeg Actually Suck? | Breaking Eggs And Making Omelettes — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:01:59 +0000

[...] discovered surprisingly few sites dedicated to hating FFmpeg. These stood out: FFMpeg strikes (again) and ffmpeg sucks. One comment even pointed out that there are no ffmpegsucks.tld domains registered [...]

By: Dan Dennedy

Dan Dennedy — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:23:31 +0000

This is a general problem with interface versioning and not exclusive to ffmpeg. I use FFmpeg a lot, and it’s changes are not exceedingly frequent or annoying IMO. People are claiming gstreamer’s API is stable, but I remember in Phonon planning, KDE devs complaining that gstreamer would not guarantee a stable interface. And what is to prevent someone trying to build gst-ffmpeg to get their app to work from running into the same problem? So, that is not the solution. A software release is simply a check point in time with little guarantees about scarcity of bugs or build problems. Therefore, a Subversion revision number in a project where policy on trunk head is very strict with the more significant patches getting mailing list review is just as valid. I recommend someone trying to build a project against FFmpeg that does not include a snapshot or revision number to grab a revision from a week or two prior to the date of the app’s release. I like Moonlight’s solution; I will start doing that. I think most complaints here are about things changing and breaking. Well, I have learned that is quite the norm as a FOSS developer. Yeah, it sucks to deal with, but I try to maintain hope that it is just a sign of things evolving and progressing.

By: Tester

Tester — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:57:21 +0000

The other problem with ffmpeg is that the various distributions that distribute it refuse to use the embedded version of ffmpeg into the various packages, but want to use a single version for everyone.. And this will guarantee pain.

By: Chris S.

Chris S. — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 12:24:50 +0000

Now now there Dave, just remember that all good apps statically link to ffmpeg.

By: Sam Morris

Sam Morris — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 12:26:22 +0000

It amazes me that anyone still develops software against FFMPEG rather than GStreamer or other multimedia libraries with a sane release process.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:41:11 +0000

Also, make sure you have
libswscale-dev installed
on ubuntu that will put the header in /usr/include/ffmpeg/swscale.h

By: blibx

blibx — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:38:47 +0000

Just install libswscale-dev.

Cheers

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:17:48 +0000

@Victor

It’s the consensus of the ffmpeg developers that “nobody but Michael passes the ‘fork test’”. Who are you going to recruit to work on this new ffmpeg. None of the current developers seem to want to deal with the hassle of releases.

If you want a stable interface to ffmpeg probably the best way to go is gstreamer-ffmpeg.

By: Adam Williamson

Adam Williamson — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:11:37 +0000

Well, the error is actually pretty simple:

error: ffmpeg/swscale.h: No such file or directory

thanks to the multiple different versions of ffmpeg floating around, and different distribution policies, the ffmpeg headers can show up in lots of different places. Find out where your distro actually keeps swscale.h, and patch the build to look for it there. You may have to fix some other similar issues, but doing that should basically work.

However, overall, yes it is that hard. The ffmpeg guys really *do* break API compatibility all the time, they’re not joking. So you can either keep a static copy of it in every fricking app that uses it, or build against the system one and hope it keeps working, which it probably won’t. Neither’s a good choice. We have a selection of both, in Mandriva.