Upstream mpv suggests ffmpeg to be used. Using libav opens users to missing functionality. This is dishonest and reckless behavior to set a default that upstream doesn't support. Please correct this. Upstream's position: https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/wiki/FFmpeg-versus-Libav
This is not a bug. Our ebuilds offer ffmpeg and libav useflags, so the user can choose which implementation they want to use with mpv.
You misunderstood, it is a bug because libav is not recommended and it was set as default in this revision. This is going to lead to problems for uninformed users. There should be information added to the ebuild warning that merging with libav will cause broken/limited subtitle support, as it's very likely users will start to file bugs on here when things that used to work stop working.
Joe, now it is not possible to install both ffmpeg and libav in one Gentoo system, so whether ffmpeg or libav is default is distro wide choice, not per package: http://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo-x86/profiles/base/make.defaults?r1=1.121&r2=1.122 Also did you read metadata/news/2015-02-01-use-libav/2015-02-01-use-libav.en.txt ? If you want ffmpeg, disable USE libav in your make.conf. In mpv both ffmpeg and libav are supported: https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/wiki/FFmpeg-versus-Libav#is-ffmpeg-or-libav-preferred-for-use-with-mpv "Although mpv attempts to work well with both FFmpeg and Libav, FFmpeg is preferred in general."
Thanks for directing me to the news item, at least there was a notification. I stand corrected. I will close this. This just seems a bad way to handle things, the news item states mplayer won't build off libav, mpv will build off it, but doesn't suggest it because of lost functionality. Are their any cases where libav is actually preferred? All I've seen is a long history of the libav developers trying to hijack their way into getting used in place of ffmpeg while rewriting things to make it look like ffmpeg doesn't exist. Anything they bring to the table ends up in ffmpeg anyway. "the user can choose which implementation they want to use with mpv." yes they can, but this is a poor default that the casual user loses with. Hell, even the devs lose out, look at all the dozens of open bugs because packages don't build with libav, or call ffmpeg directly (instead of avconv). And this is the situation a year after the default was swapped and 4 years after the fork.
> Are their any cases where libav is actually preferred? Yes, at least these projects use libav instead of ffmpeg: media-plugins/gst-plugins-libav http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/modules/gst-libav.html media-video/handbrake https://handbrake.fr/news.php
