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As a Gentoo user, libav only gave me trouble. It was incompatible with many packages, whereas ffmpeg was with none I encountered. The switch to libav was horrif

As a Gentoo user, libav only gave me trouble. It was incompatible with many packages, whereas ffmpeg was with none I encountered. The switch to libav was horrific and I never managed to resolve all the issues it created with my system. For some months, updating my system was a herculean task due to libav causing constant —and largely unsolved— trouble. I was really happy to see Gentoo return to ffmpeg. Everything works smooth once again. I can't comment on code quality, project management, etc and frankly I don't care. If one library causes problems to every bit of my system, it should stay off until it is on par with the library it tries to replace —provided that both libraries use a free software compatible license.

tanderson92 11y ago
Can't you choose libav / ffmpeg as you see fit on Gentoo machines ?
- TheDong 11y ago
  Yes. Gentoo changed the default profile's use flags to include "libav", but adding USE="-libav" would get you back to the ffmpeg world. Gentoo has supported both for as long as its included libav at all.
- TheDong 11y ago
  Yes. Gentoo changed the default profile's use flags to include "libav", but adding USE="-libav" would get you back to the ffmpeg world. Gentoo has supported both for as long as its included libav at all.
- andmarios 11y ago
  Νear the end of 2014, libav became the default library. Until then it was up to the user to choose, so most of us were with ffmpeg due to our old use flags. Given the new status quo, my system refused to update since it would pull both libav due to the new profile and ffmpeg due to my use flags. As the Gentoo devs made this new choice, I thought I should embrace it, so I followed the steps to switch to libav. This created a nightmare of dependency issues that took me months to solve, especially given my limited time and that this happened on my main machine. I finally switched back to ffmpeg but it seemed to me that only when it —libav— was removed from Gentoo's default desktop profile my problems really stopped.
JoshTriplett 11y ago
That problem existed in both directions. Packages written to ffmpeg would have trouble building with libav, and packages written to libav would have trouble building with ffmpeg. For an example of the latter, gstreamer adapted its ffmpeg plugin to become a libav plugin, and that plugin now doesn't always build against ffmpeg without some effort.

tanderson92 11y ago

Can't you choose libav / ffmpeg as you see fit on Gentoo machines ?

TheDong 11y ago
Yes. Gentoo changed the default profile's use flags to include "libav", but adding USE="-libav" would get you back to the ffmpeg world. Gentoo has supported both for as long as its included libav at all.
TheDong 11y ago
Yes. Gentoo changed the default profile's use flags to include "libav", but adding USE="-libav" would get you back to the ffmpeg world. Gentoo has supported both for as long as its included libav at all.
andmarios 11y ago
Νear the end of 2014, libav became the default library. Until then it was up to the user to choose, so most of us were with ffmpeg due to our old use flags. Given the new status quo, my system refused to update since it would pull both libav due to the new profile and ffmpeg due to my use flags. As the Gentoo devs made this new choice, I thought I should embrace it, so I followed the steps to switch to libav. This created a nightmare of dependency issues that took me months to solve, especially given my limited time and that this happened on my main machine. I finally switched back to ffmpeg but it seemed to me that only when it —libav— was removed from Gentoo's default desktop profile my problems really stopped.

JoshTriplett 11y ago

That problem existed in both directions. Packages written to ffmpeg would have trouble building with libav, and packages written to libav would have trouble building with ffmpeg. For an example of the latter, gstreamer adapted its ffmpeg plugin to become a libav plugin, and that plugin now doesn't always build against ffmpeg without some effort.