From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Mark H Weaver Subject: Re: [PATCH] gnu: icecat: Add ffmpeg support. Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 18:51:35 -0500 Message-ID: <87tw96fp88.fsf@netris.org> References: <20170109212839.2777-1-m.othacehe@gmail.com> <87shoroikp.fsf@netris.org> <87vatnq9pj.fsf@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:33978) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cR6Cp-0007w3-IV for guix-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 10 Jan 2017 18:51:56 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cR6Ck-0002C4-Lw for guix-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 10 Jan 2017 18:51:55 -0500 Received: from world.peace.net ([50.252.239.5]:37904) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cR6Ck-0002Ba-IK for guix-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 10 Jan 2017 18:51:50 -0500 In-Reply-To: <87vatnq9pj.fsf@gmail.com> (Mathieu OTHACEHE's message of "Tue, 10 Jan 2017 15:19:04 +0100") List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: Mathieu OTHACEHE Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org Mathieu OTHACEHE writes: >> Have you tried installing 'gst-libav' in your profile? That's what I >> do, and I'm able to watch videos in icecat that use those codecs. > > Yes I tried but I'm still not able to read videos from dailymotion or > vimeo for instance. With this patch, it seems to work. > > Youtube also report support for H.264 and MSE & H.264 is problematic > with current icecat (with or without gst-libav), but working with this > patch. > > See: https://www.youtube.com/html5 > > Do you share the same observations ? Indeed, you're right. For some reason, our current IceCat package doesn't acknowledge the existence of the H.264 decoder in gst-libav, although 'totem' is able to play such files via gstreamer and gst-libav. It would be preferable to find out why the gstreamer approach is not working properly. I see at least three disadvantages of depending on ffmpeg directly: 1. Every time ffmpeg is updated, IceCat would need to be recompiled. 2. Users who wish to avoid codecs under threat by patent holders would have no easy recourse, whereas currently they can simply avoid installing 'gst-libav'. 3. Supporting all of the codecs in ffmpeg entails a security risk, because it contains a large number of codecs, some of which surely have security flaws. An attacker can find an obscure codec in there that nobody uses and exploit it. At present, users can greatly mitigate this risk by installing only 'gst-plugins-good'. For multiple reasons, it would be best to isolate patent-encumbered codecs to optional plugins, rather than "baking them in" to our packages. What do you think? Thank you for looking into this. Mark