[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] avcodec: Remove libfaac, the internal AAC encoder is better

[Kieran Kunhya]

On Sun, 10 Apr 2016 at 20:46 Michael Niedermayer <michael at niedermayer.cc>
wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 09:24:21PM +0200, wm4 wrote:
> > On Sun, 10 Apr 2016 21:13:13 +0200
> > Michael Niedermayer <michael at niedermayer.cc> wrote:
> >
> > > On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 07:29:05PM +0100, Rostislav Pehlivanov wrote:
> > > > On 10 April 2016 at 17:42, Michael Niedermayer
> <michael at niedermayer.cc>
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 04:38:35PM +0100, Kieran Kunhya wrote:
> > > > > > ---
> > > > > >  Changelog              |   1 +
> > > > > >  configure              |   6 --
> > > > > >  doc/encoders.texi      | 105 ---------------------
> > > > > >  doc/ffserver.conf      |   2 +-
> > > > > >  doc/general.texi       |   2 +-
> > > > > >  doc/muxers.texi        |   4 +-
> > > > > >  doc/platform.texi      |   2 +-
> > > > > >  libavcodec/Makefile    |   1 -
> > > > > >  libavcodec/allcodecs.c |   1 -
> > > > > >  libavcodec/libfaac.c   | 248
> > > > > -------------------------------------------------
> > > > > >  libavcodec/version.h   |   2 +-
> > > > > >  11 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 367 deletions(-)
> > > > > >  delete mode 100644 libavcodec/libfaac.c
> > > > >
> > > > > this is not possible currently libfaac is twice as fast than the
> > > > > native encoder.
> > > > >
> > > > > time ./ffmpeg -v 0 -i matrixbench_mpeg2.mpg -vn -c:a libfaac -y
> test.aac
> > > > > real    0m2.828s
> > > > > user    0m2.776s
> > > > > sys     0m0.048s
> > > > >
> > > > > time ./ffmpeg -v 0 -i matrixbench_mpeg2.mpg -vn -y test.aac
> > > > > real    0m5.908s
> > > > > user    0m5.856s
> > > > > sys     0m0.048s
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > FAAC isn't maintained, hasn't had any work done on it in who knows
> how many
> > > > years, nobody but people who don't know that the native encoder/fdk
> is
> > > > better use it (just a few thankfully), isn't particularly stable
> > > > (segfaulted a few times when I was comparing it last year) and
> finally,
> > > > it's not good at all.
> > > > An argument that it's faster than the native encoder has as much
> weight as
> > > > an argument that libaac_plus was also faster than the native
> encoder, which
> > > > didn't matter as it was eventually removed
> > > > The age where we needed a few different AAC encoders because there
> wasn't
> > > > really a single good multipurpose one is gone now. The times have
> changed
> > > > since FAAC was developed (Nokia sponsored at lot of its development,
> and
> > > > you know what they used to make) and so have the computers. What was
> an
> > > > acceptable speed back then for encoding a file at a given quality
> isn't
> > > > necessarily the same now. And considering that fdk-aac can run as
> slow as
> > > > our encoder I'd say we're doing pretty well as far as the balance
> between
> > > > speed and quality goes.
> > >
> > > x264 can encode at really impressive speed and also at really
> > > impressive quality, its the users choice by using teh preset option
> > >
> > > for aac the user can choose speed through using the libfaac encoder
> > > or quality through using the native encoder
> > > speed matters for battery powered devices, not just for media servers
> > > on phones but also for plain audio recording on phones which i think
> > > is more common.
> >
> > That's like grasping for straws. I very much doubt any phone uses the
> > ffmpeg API to encode AAC.
>
> i suspect some apps even pipe it into command line
> ffmpeg and mencoder on phones.
>
> some apps likely use the ffmpeg API, some likely will use multiple
> libs directly to provide the various supported encoding formats
> using ffmpeg (api or command line) is simpler than multiple libs
> so it makes sense to use it instead if one is lazy
>
>
>
libfaac is nonfree so please could you explain how apps distribute FFmpeg
with libfaac?

Regards,
Kieran Kunhya