[FFmpeg-soc] AAC Encoding - Where we stand, what's left

[Justin Ruggles]

Alex Converse wrote:
> I'm not the only one who's wondered if FFmpeg is really the best place
> to implement a high quality encoder. FFmpeg lacks a VC-1 encoder, an
> H.264 encoder, and an MP3 encoder. x264 is developed outside of FFmpeg
> despite sharing some code. Aften and Flake (that PARCOR routine is
> actually from Flake) are developed outside of FFmpeg and periodically
> have features backported. AAC itself is older than FFmpeg (not some
> johnny-come-lately format) and we still lack a working encoder for it.

Well, since you mentioned 2 of my projects I thought I would comment.

If I could get all of the features from Flake into FFmpeg then I would
gladly stop developing it in favor of making the FFmpeg FLAC encoder
better instead.  I started Flake as something fun to do and because it
ended up being pretty good I ported it to FFmpeg.  The biggest part of
getting the rest of it to FFmpeg is variable block size encoding, which
has hit a wall because of the current FFmpeg audio encoding API.

The reason why Aften was and still is developed outside of FFmpeg is a
long story that I don't care to go into at the moment, but a big portion
of what would be needed to port it to FFmpeg has to do with per-codec
options.

-Justin