[Ffmpeg-devel] Re: integrating AVS decoding into MPlayer

[Baptiste Coudurier]

Rich Felker wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 14, 2006 at 09:24:47PM +0100, M?ns Rullg?rd wrote:
>>>> There is no avi fourcc defined for avs, so it can't be done.
>>> Then define one. This is what we've always done in the past.
>> And it's about time an end was put to that habit.
> 
> Disagree strongly. Any (sane) codec can be stored in any (sane)
> container. Some containers require fourcc. Therefore every codec needs
> a fourcc.

I strongly disagree. There are codecs which won't ever be contained into
AVI unless something (ffmpeg, mencoder) tries to, therefore no need for
fourcc at all. Some that comes in mind are Dolby-E  and DNxHD which will
be contained into MXF and no other (maybe isom in the future though). If
you do that, you just invent something non standardized. Now if NUT
specify a fourcc for those codecs, it will become standardized, but only
for NUT.

> [...]
> 
> It's not by design until some people sit down and decide to stop the
> madness and agree to all use a common system. Adopting a common system
> that's already a de facto standard is much easier than pusing
> something new on everyone. This is why POSIX and ANSI C succeeded and
> why many idiotic "standards" proposals in the multimedia world (from
> windows codec doodz, matroska doodz, mxf, gstreamer, ...) failed to be
> adopted outside their own circles.

People sit down, they are SMPTE, ISO.

Industry WILL use MXF (AVID, FCP, every broadcast server) and essence
wrapping is standardized. They have a different point of view and AVI is
not for them.

IMHO people did something stupid trying to wrap every codec in every
container. Sorenson 3 is contained in MOV until further notice, same for
QDM2. You should not wrap them into AVI until it is standardized.

> Our proposal is that people adopt the fourcc system and use it in all
> formats. This has nothing to do with using nasty MS data structures
> (BITMAPINFOHEADER, etc.), just using a naming system that's already
> human-readable, computer-efficient, and just plain sane.

That is the easiest solution and IMHO the best one. Adopting a
"standardized" fourcc table for NUT and maintaining it in the specs is a
good choice, choosing AVI ones or MOV ones by default if fourcc exists.
You need to pick MOV ones for some codecs of course.

-- 
Baptiste COUDURIER                              GnuPG Key Id: 0x5C1ABAAA
SMARTJOG S.A.                                    http://www.smartjog.com
Key fingerprint                 8D77134D20CC9220201FC5DB0AC9325C5C1ABAAA
Phone: +33 1 49966312