FFmpeg Finally Releases Long-Awaited Version 0.5

An anonymous reader writes "After many years of release-free development, FFmpeg, the most widely used audio and video codec library, has finally returned to a regular release schedule with the long-awaited version 0.5. While the list of changes is far too long to list here, some high-profile improvements include the reverse-engineering of all Real video formats, WMV9/VC-1 support, AAC decoding, and of course vast performance improvements across the board. To commemorate the 'lively' discussions predating the release, 0.5 is codenamed 'half-way to world domination A.K.A. the belligerent blue bike shed.' The new version can be downloaded from the official website." As another reader points out, FFmpeg is what makes some open source multimedia apps (like MPlayer, Xine, VLC and Kdenlive) so versatile.

Comments

Re:Who cares about FFmpeg? You should.

[thomasdz]

I'd like to point out that FFmpeg is what makes some open source multimedia apps (like MPlayer, Xine, VLC and Kdenlive) so versatile.

Thanks for that info. I was reading the Slashdot article summary, where it says: "As another reader points out, FFmpeg is what makes some open source multimedia apps (like MPlayer, Xine, VLC and Kdenlive) so versatile." and was hoping that some reader like yourself would point that out because that factoid is only mentioned once in the summary and thus is not obvious to people who only read the scrollbars on their window.

Re:M!!

[domatic]

The Will has several ports of mplayer available. The version called MPlayer CE is the most actively developed.

http://www.wiibrew.org/wiki/MPlayer_CE

It can be installed by the Homebrew Channel. The downside of the mplayers port is that they has no memory protection so attempting to play files that they can't play can crash the Wii requiring a hard reset. I've done this a number of times and haven't suffered anything evil like bricking the thing.

Re:"Regular release schedule"

[c0rN_g0aT]

I think he was trying to point out that previously FFmpeg didn't have any release cycle at all. They wanted everyone to download and compile the latest CVS snapshot and use that. In fact, to get help from the mailing list they usually require that you download source and recompile first. The fact that they have locked in and officially named a release is significant.

Re:Who cares about FFmpeg? You should.

[Inda]

I too would like to point out that FFmpeg is what makes some open source multimedia apps (like MPlayer, Xine, VLC and Kdenlive) so versatile.

Re:Who cares about FFmpeg? You should.

[Alphanos]

Presumably he's the reader the editors were referring to...

easier blu-ray on linux?

[je ne sais quoi]

I noticed on the release notes that ffmpeg now supports TrueHD as well as the VC-1 for video, these are both commonly used on blu-ray discs. Maybe we'll get lucky and at least now we'll be able to play our blu-ray disc tracks on linux after we remove all the DRM, & HDCP nonsense. We could sort of do it before but it's a royal pain in the ass: just last night I had to go through about four different media players to blue-ray tracks in trueHD audio and some other weird video format before I found one that could actually play my disc without spewing out error messages every frame. Even then it seemed like the dolby 5.1 sound was messed up -- the voices were coming from behind us and the music from the front.

Re:easier blu-ray on linux?

[LeafOnTheWind]

We're working on it. Just to let you know, while I'm sure an official release will be useable, don't expect the raw source ffmpeg model to go out any time soon. I expect that bug fixes and features will be in the repository very quickly and if you have a need for these things, you should probably compile the code from source. You may also want to keep an eye on the mailing lists
http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-cvslog/
http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-devel/

Re:Who cares about FFmpeg? You should.

[rilles]

Thanks for pointing out that fact. phew.

Almost done?

[El_Muerte_TDS]

So, 0.5. Does that mean they're half way done?

Re:Who cares about FFmpeg? You should.

[BPPG]

I would like to point out that teen pregnancy is an unfortunate problem that is difficult to prevent in our society.

That was always the most confusing part too

[coryking]

There never was a real build for ffmpeg. Now that they've got a stable release, I wonder when they will start pushing out official builds for various platforms (say, Win32/64)?

That said, could they actually push out binaries? One of the strange things with ffmpeg is that pretty much everywhere you go, it is compiled different. One system's ffmpeg will have a bunch of codecs installed and another will not. You can never really count on having something like H.264. Hell, I've seen one installation that didn't even have libmp3lame on it! Reminds me of PHP in many ways--so many damn compiler flags that you are pretty much guaranteed every system will be different.

Is this a legal thing, or a "we dont have a good build process yet" thing?

Doesn't support Dirac

[Burz]

WTF? I am supposed to use Theora if I want an unencumbered codec??

At least VLC supports it directly.

Incidentally, VLC is not so hot on OS X these days. Instead of using FFmpeg for everything it can, it defers to Quicktime and its plugins for anything it can. Which means that most of the time you will not get an alternative method of decoding with the latest VLC versions; I can play many more files with earlier versions.

Re:"Regular release schedule"

[wealthychef]

Not "restarting." "Starting." They have never had a release schedule as they do not do releases. OR didn't. Whatever.

Re:still no multithreaded h.264 decoding

[the_crowbar]

If you have an Nvidia 8400 or better card and driver version 180.xx (I think .37 is newest) you can use the VDPAU api to offload the video decode to your GPU. Just Google it to find the mplayer patches or maybe binaries. There are also some MythTV unofficial builds with it. It can allow a Sempron to easily play high bitrate h.264 video (i.e. BluRay).

Cheers,
the_crowbar

Hope this helps building a better documentation

[egghat]

ffmpeg is one of the pieces in the open source world that must have the biggest gap between usefulness and usability. Ever seen the man page? Gazillions of options! Some of them can be applied multiple times for input and output. Therefore the order of arguments is significant. Took a while for me to figure that out ...

Re:Hope this helps building a better documentation

[DarkOx]

FFMPEG is not something that I think is targeted at the end user to use on the command line. It works great for people like you and I who can figure it out. I can't remember all those options either but I certainly can and have created some shell scripts to build correct ffmpeg commands to produce output for the various media devices I own. Its nice to have this option, as I don't know of any software front end that would let me record directly from my DTV card and convert to the obscure mov+jpegB format used by my SANSA on the fly. Its to exotic a situation and something only a small number of people want to do. That is where the ffmpeg binary is great. It lets people like me to slap what I want together in some shell scripts and not have to break out the C compiler.

Really the projects value is in libavcodec; which is used in all sorts of things like VLC, mplayer, Myth etc which are much more "usable" and target at the end user.

Re:Who cares about FFmpeg? You should.

[leromarinvit]

I'd like to point out that teen pregnancy drops off significantly after age 25.