[mythtv] Decision on FFmpeg repository

[Peter Bennett]

On 05/17/2018 04:33 PM, John P Poet wrote:
>
> If David and Aman are willing / able to get our patches pushed to 
> FFmpeg, then this <hopefully> would become a non-issue, since we could 
> just add an external dependency on FFmpeg, instead of including it.  
> Again, that is probably not practical, though.

I sent Aman files of our patches a few days ago. He noticed a couple 
that he suggested I submit to FFmpeg.

1. One header file now causes c++ compiles to fail.
Response from them - the header file we have been using is not public 
and should not be used by us. Patch rejected.
2. Three external names misspelled in a .v file - resulting in a link error
Response from them - those functions are not part of the public api and 
they are no longer used - they should be removed.

I believe that in the past, MythTV developers have noticed useful things 
in the FFmpeg code, and called functions or used structures without 
regard to whether they were the official API. Now those functions are 
being changed or removed we are scrambling to fix the result. It may be 
better to copy useful functions into our code rather than simply call 
them in the ever changing FFmpeg code.

We should only be using the external API that is exposed by the header 
files they deploy as part of FFmpeg build. We are using the header files 
in the FFmpeg source.

Peter