ffmpeg vs libav

[Pavlo Bohmat]

In the package ffmpeg should be ffmpeg, not libav. Maintainer is misleading users.

Source: libav
Depends: libav-tools
Homepage: http://libav.org/

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: ffmpeg 4:0.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-26.41-generic 3.2.19
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-26-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Jul 4 10:14:08 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=ru_UA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: libav
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

This is a common misconception. The 'ffmpeg' package contains libav's deprecated version of ffmpeg.c that is going away in a future version of ubuntu.

Also cf. bug #1004174, comments #7 and #8

[Pavlo Bohmat (bohm)]

You are doing a rough substitute for the ffmpeg project fork libav.

[misha (misha-mao)]

Package should contain real ffmpeg software or has a different name.
Please stop to abuse ffpeg, they are nice guys!

[JTux (juliette-tux)]

The Libav behaviour towards FFmpeg project is disgusting.

[Aliel (aliel)]

I would like to see the true ffmpeg in repositories Debian and Ubuntu, FFmpeg is more stable, than Libav.

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

Please do not change the bug status without rationale.

FYI, this topic has already been discussed in front of the technical board, and the decision was to not overrule the decision of the package maintainers, i.e., stick with libav for Ubuntu.

[Andres Mejia (amejia1)]

This bug merits the "opinion" status. If ffmpeg was chosen to be in the Debian/Ubuntu repositories, there would be (without a doubt) another set of users who would have opened bugs complaining that libav should be in the repositories because of opinions X, Y, Z, and so on.

Libav was chosen to be in the repositories. There are emails in Ubuntu's technical board mailing list and in Debian's mailing lists explaining why libav was chosen. If anyone really wants to see ffmpeg in the repositories, then ffmpeg or libav or both have to rename their libraries.

And about ffmpeg stability, ffmpeg is practically all of libav's codebase with extra features merged in. If ffmpeg is stable, it is thanks to libav.

[Bob Bib (bobbib)]

Paul Bogmat,
> In the package ffmpeg should be ffmpeg, not libav. Maintainer is misleading users.

it's not as bad as it seems at 1st glance:

1) ffmpeg binary package doesn't stand for complete FFmpeg suite;
instead of that, it provides a converter utility called ffmpeg (and possibly a player called ffplay or whatever else);
Libav project considers ffmpeg utility to be obsolete, replacing it with another tool called avconv (provided by libav-tools binary package);
therefore, ffmpeg binary package is designed for transition from ffmpeg utility to avconv (more to say, in some versions this package not only depends on libav-tools to get avconv, but provides ffmpeg utility itself);

2) the current source package is correctly named libav: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libav
and not ffmpeg (as it was in previous Ubuntu releases): https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ffmpeg
thus, there's no confusion between them.

[DonnieD (donnied)]

upgrade ffmpeg to latest 2.0

changelog:
version 2.0:

- curves filter
- reference-counting for AVFrame and AVPacket data
- ffmpeg now fails when input options are used for output file
  or vice versa
- support for Monkey's Audio versions from 3.93
- perms and aperms filters
- audio filtering support in ffplay
- 10% faster aac encoding on x86 and MIPS
- sine audio filter source
- WebP demuxing and decoding support
- new ffmpeg options -filter_script and -filter_complex_script, which allow a
  filtergraph description to be read from a file
- OpenCL support
- audio phaser filter
- separatefields filter
- libquvi demuxer
- uniform options syntax across all filters
- telecine filter
- new interlace filter
- smptehdbars source
- inverse telecine filters (fieldmatch and decimate)
- colorbalance filter
- colorchannelmixer filter
- The matroska demuxer can now output proper verbatim ASS packets. It will
  become the default at the next libavformat major bump.
- decent native animated GIF encoding
- asetrate filter
- interleave filter
- timeline editing with filters
- vidstabdetect and vidstabtransform filters for video stabilization using
  the vid.stab library
- astats filter
- trim and atrim filters
- ffmpeg -t and -ss (output-only) options are now sample-accurate when
  transcoding audio
- Matroska muxer can now put the index at the beginning of the file.
- extractplanes filter
- avectorscope filter
- ADPCM DTK decoder
- ADP demuxer
- RSD demuxer
- RedSpark demuxer
- ADPCM IMA Radical decoder
- zmq filters
- DCT denoiser filter (dctdnoiz)
- Wavelet denoiser filter ported from libmpcodecs as owdenoise (formerly "ow")
- Apple Intermediate Codec decoder
- Escape 130 video decoder
- FTP protocol support
- V4L2 output device
- 3D LUT filter (lut3d)
- SMPTE 302M audio encoder
- support for slice multithreading in libavfilter
- Hald CLUT support (generation and filtering)
- VC-1 interlaced B-frame support
- support for WavPack muxing (raw and in Matroska)
- XVideo output device
- vignette filter
- True Audio (TTA) encoder
- Go2Webinar decoder
- mcdeint filter ported from libmpcodecs
- sab filter ported from libmpcodecs
- ffprobe -show_chapters option
- WavPack encoding through libwavpack
- rotate filter
- spp filter ported from libmpcodecs
- libgme support
- psnr filter

[Pavlo Bohmat (bohm)]

 Rogério Brito, a Debian developer, has proposed a Request For Package (RFP) in the Debian bug tracking system.

Please let the Debian and Ubuntu developers know that you support packaging of the real FFmpeg! See Debian ticket #729203 for more details --> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=729203

[anarcat (anarcat)]

Having "me too" comments in the Debian bugtracker is not a very effective way of driving a productive conversation, especially when some comments call libav a "virus"...

[CyborgAlpha (cyborg-alpha-nh4)]

">>*** THIS PROGRAM IS DEPRECATED ***
>>This program is only provided for compatibility and will be removed in a
future release. Please use avconv instead.
"

after issuing an ffmpeg command, cause ffmpeg to go into permanent disk-sleep, requiring a re-boot to resolve it. Kill, does not kill ffmpeg (with the new message) only a reboot does.