Dear Reinhard,

Thank you for your comments

>> avconv is presented as a drop-in replacement for ffmpeg
>> but avconv can't handle a lot of important commandline switches of
>> ffmpeg

>Best solution, link your application directly against libavcodec, etc.,
>or adapt your scripts to avconv.

no, because avconv/libavcodec set is not able to split stereo in dual mono
while the current ffmpeg actually can. (which, as i explained, is highly needed for i.e. XDCAM 422HD MXF)
The only solution for me at the moment would be installing ffmbc (not in repository) or ffmpeg (from PPA)
but then I would have to find a way to remove avconv from the repository because it is using the ffmpeg name and therefore it will be very unpredictable which will be installed if it doesn't clash rightaway.

(and that is a bug.)

>The version that is
>available from http://ffmpeg.org has evolved, added new features and
>changed existing behavior that are not supported in ubuntu.

exactly, so i expect to get ffmpeg when i do "apt-get install ffmpeg"
otherwise I would have done "apt-get install avconv" to get avconv
and I would get my docs from http://libav.org

>FYI, the upcoming version of ubuntu is not going to provide a
>/usr/bin/ffmpeg binary at all.

that is good news, it will be /usr/bin/avconv all the way then. That will at least solve some confusion.
and also it will solve a lot of problems when adding the real ffmpeg via a PPA.

>> try this (copied from the ffmpeg documetation):
>> ffmpeg -i stereo.wav -map 0:0 -map 0:0 -map_channel 0.0.0:0.0
>> -map_channel 0.0.1:0.1 -y out.ogg

>What FFmpeg documentation are you referring to?

The official ffmpeg documentation:
http://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.html#Advanced-options

> bugfix:
>> merge audiomapping back into the code or add the funcion "asplit" which
>> should do the opposite of "amerge"

> please see the avconv documentation for this.

I did extensively and avconv has none such a functionality at the moment.
ffmpeg does, so actually avconv should stop pretending to be ffmpeg.
avconv/libav is not (or no longer) a drop-in replacement for ffmpeg but a full grown high quality codec suite in it's own right.
hell, it can even do interlaced resizing nowadays....avconv IS really great.
(but its name is not ffmpeg)

>> alternative bugfix:
>> give me ffmpeg or ffmbc when i apt-get install ffmpeg and give me avconv
>> when i apt-get install avconv

>This is more complicated to implement than you might think. You are
>welcome to propose concrete proposals and patches to implement this, but
>be assured, packaging and providing both Libav and FFmpeg simultaneously
>has been found to be unfeasible maintenance-wise.

I know that it can be a hassle to give someone <packet-name> when someone is doing "apt-get install <packet-name>"
I therefore have a big respect that it works for most of the other 28000+ packages in the repository and don't blame libav that they slip-up.

I assume that the biggest problem is providing both ffmpeg and avconv
In that case: Libav shouldn't change the current situation but drop the name "ffmpeg" because it is a bit misleading and could give some serious unintended consequences when adding the real ffmpeg via a PPA to a packetmanager
OR
they should keep the name ffmpeg and functionally comply with it.

They, at least, shouldn't keep on navigating under a "alien flag", I don't say this for political reasons but because of real technical issues that arise when two different projects use the same packet names in the same packet database on the same client.


Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain myself a bit....also thank you for reading this and replying.

Herzliches gruessen,

Thom