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Tasklist

FS#7782 - Make codecs an optional dep of mplayer

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Aaron Griffin (phrakture) - Saturday, 11 August 2007, 23:07 GMT
Last edited by Tom Killian (tomk) - Tuesday, 18 December 2007, 23:22 GMT
Task Type Feature Request
Category Packages: Extra
Status Closed
Assigned To Tom Killian (tomk)
Architecture All
Severity Low
Priority Normal
Reported Version 2007.08 Don't Panic
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 3
Private No

Details

FFMPEG has gone really far in a short while. Using free libraries, we (linux users) can play ridiculous amounts of video types without a hassle. IIRC the 'codecs' package is rarely needed (RealMedia and something else) and we should attempt to promote free alternatives in the place of closed (and potentially illegal) codecs.

I have removed 'codecs' from my machine a while ago, and have not had any issues watching online content like Stage6, or downloaded video clips.
This task depends upon

Closed by  Tom Killian (tomk)
Tuesday, 18 December 2007, 23:22 GMT
Reason for closing:  Implemented
Additional comments about closing:  In mplayer-svn 25449-1.
Comment by Benjamin Andresen (klapmuetz) - Saturday, 11 August 2007, 23:14 GMT
Whee, how awesome would this be if this would become reality.

One can only hope.
Comment by Hussam Al-Tayeb (hussam) - Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 12:40 GMT
the win32codecs/realcodecs ( codecs package ) is really useful for playing Realmedia.
Xine-lib and mplayer both use ffmpeg and can play all sorts of media (apart from Realmedia) without the codecs package.
The need for the win32 codecs package is just a myth. ffmpeg has almost every format reverse engineered and supported.
Please add '--disable-win32dll --disable-real' to mplayer and check. It will still play everything.
Comment by Hussam Al-Tayeb (hussam) - Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 12:45 GMT
Similarly xine-lib should be build with '--disable-w32dll --disable-real-codecs' and 'codecs' dependency removed.
Apart from realmedia, there is no loss of functionality.
People who want realmedia support can always legally download the freeware realplayer for Linux from real website.
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 14:08 GMT
I see no reason to remove a useful feature from mplayer/xine and make people use crap like realplayer.

Furthermore, ffmpeg doesn't have everything reverse-engineered, newer windows media videos won't work without codecs either.
Comment by Roman Kyrylych (Romashka) - Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 15:12 GMT
What if codecs will be optional dependency with a correspondent message in post_install?
Comment by Hussam Al-Tayeb (hussam) - Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 15:40 GMT
That should work too. Xine-lib will prefer win32codecs but will gladly fall back to ffmpeg at runtime when win32codecs aren't found. Not sure about mplayer.
In any case, making codecs an optional dependency with a post_install message is a perfect idea.
Comment by Smith Dhumbumroong (zodmaner) - Saturday, 08 September 2007, 05:50 GMT
So, the idea is that one can still install the 'codecs' package and use it if one needs them? If so then I have no problem with this change. Otherwise, as Brain0 said, ffmpeg doesn't support every format out there (believe me, I had a lot of problems trying to view some video clips from Windows in my Ubuntu days), and I would rather use MPlayer than realplayer.
Comment by Hussam Al-Tayeb (hussam) - Saturday, 08 September 2007, 08:13 GMT
ffmpeg is a changing a lot lately. Also xine-lib will compile against system ffmpeg if you add --disable-dxr3 to xine-lib's configure options.
In any case, as I have mentioned before, xine-lib will correctly fall back to ffmpeg if it is compiled to use win32codecs but the win32codecs are missing.
So it is safe to make the 'codecs' package an optional dependency.
Can someone verify this in mplayer?
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Saturday, 08 September 2007, 11:02 GMT
As I discovered lately, codecs is not even necessary as a makedepend. So we can remove it from depends completely with the next package.
Comment by Aaron Griffin (phrakture) - Monday, 17 December 2007, 20:41 GMT
Reopened and assigned to TomK - could you please make the same change for mplayer-svn?

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