Bug#519025: [ffmpeg-debian] Please clarify which codec is included (and which isn't), and what exactly is ffmpeg-debian

[Reinhard Tartler]

Fabian Greffrath <fabian.greffrath at freenet.de> writes:

>> -Add an other file in /usr/share/doc/ffmpeg which would only list
>> disabled codecs, and suggest an alternative? Readme.Debian already does
>> about half of that by saying that "mpeg encoders" are disabled. By the
>
> So we could add an explicit list of codecs that have been removed, sure.
> By the way, debian/strip.sh does this more or less. We could also add
> this information to the package descriptions and replace the somehow
> vague "Debian-specific" phrasing.

I'd prefer to keep that vague phrasing because I do not really agree
that what we do in strip.sh is sensible. Interested people really need
to look at that file to understand what we are doing.

This is unsatisfactory for the causual user, sure. But given the current
mess I think this is the best we can do.

>> way, this file may need an update since a lot of stuff written in 2006
>> seems outdated. There is a patents.gz file but it doesn't talk about mpeg4.
>
> About 3/4 of README.Debian have been added in 2008 and contain
> up-to-date information. patents.txt is outdated with respect to MPEG4
> encoding support, that's true. Maybe we should simply merge it into
> README.Debian.

Sounds sensible. Feel free to propose a patch, or commit straight away
to the master branch of ffmpeg-debian. I'm pretty bad at writing such
files, you know...

-- 
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4