[Ffmpeg-devel] Using ffmpeg libs in an OSS project is a nightmare

[Kenneth Lavrsen]

>
>Xine? Hmm. Will take a look.

Nope. Motion uses ffmpeg to encode mpegs from YUV420P or Monochrome 8 bit.
Motion is a program that can monitor many cameras (V4L or Network 
jpeg/mjpeg). It analyses the pictures for Motion using many advanced 
features to ensure safe Motion detection. When motion is detected Motion 
can save the pictures as jpeg or make small mpeg movies of each event. 
Motion uses the mpeg4 or msmpeg4 encoding feature from ffmpeg for this. 
Motion can easily monitor 8 or more cameras in parallel so it is important 
that the encoding happens fast and ffmpeg is dammed good at doing exactly that.

Xine libs seems to contain decoders only. No mpeg encoding in the libs as 
far as I can see. But it seems like a very neatly managed project. Wow.

PS
A similar program is Zoneminder which by the way also uses ffmpeg for the 
same purpose. You can add that project to the webpage of projects using 
ffmpeg as well. URL is http://www.zoneminder.com/ . They are the 
"competition" but we love them anyway :-)  Zoneminder is a GUI oriented 
program. Motion is a daemon meant to run in the background with as small a 
foot print as possible. So two different ways of doing the same thing. But 
we borrow ideas from each other. The beauty of OSS.

They also do not distribute the ffmpeg sources. Try and go to their forum 
and search for ffmpeg. Yes. They have the exact same problems as Motion 
users. Change of API combined with the fact that people download latest 
ffmpeg CVS instead of a baseline release, keeps on breaking things for the 
end users. I am sure many more projects are in the same situation.

Kenneth




-- 
Kenneth Lavrsen,
Glostrup, Denmark
kenneth at lavrsen.dk
Home Page - http://www.lavrsen.dk