[theora] theora video plugin ? videolan plugin?

[Twisted Lincoln, Inc.]

Sadly, the Debian maintained variants aren't distributable.  According 
to the readme in the source code:

"Currently the following video encoders are disabled in the ffmpeg
package: H263, H264, MPEG2 video, MPEG4 and MS-MPEG4. No *decoders* are
disabled in any the ffmpeg package!"

So there are plenty of patent encumbered formats still included.

As for building VLC without FFMPEG (--disable-avcodec, etc), I'd like to 
provide a solution that would work as a groundwork for modifying all 
FFMPEG powered software.  Besides, one could still run afoul of patents 
if they distribute source code that *could* be compiled to support 
patented codecs, even if the binarys you distribute alongside it is 
compiled without such support.  As such, it is safest to completely 
remove the offending code from the source.

Tony Lovasco
Twisted Lincoln, Inc.
www.twistedlincoln.com


On 03/27/2010 04:28 PM, Remco wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 22:08, Twisted Lincoln, Inc.
> <forum at twistedlincoln.com>  wrote:
>    
>> I'd be very interested in knowing if there is a way to easily remove support
>> for patent encumbered codecs in FFMPEG (and by extension, VLC).  I've been
>> trying to manually remove the codecs one at a time, but there are so many
>> it's taking forever...
>>
>> My plan is to eventually maintain a free format only fork of FFMPEG to use
>> as the basis of creating legally distributable variants of the various
>> FFMPEG powered projects (like VLC).
>>
>> Has anyone else looked into this?
>>      
> Debian seems to have such a fork:
> http://packages.debian.org/sid/libavcodec52
> http://packages.debian.org/sid/libavformat52
> http://packages.debian.org/sid/libavutil49
>
>