[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] 5 year plan & Inovation

[Lynne]

Apr 17, 2024, 15:58 by michael at niedermayer.cc:

> Hi all
>
> The pace of inovation in FFmpeg has been slowing down.
> Most work is concentarted nowadays on code refactoring, and adding
> support for new codecs and formats.
>
> Should we
> * make a list of longer term goals
> * vote on them
> * and then together work towards implementing them
> ?
>
> (The idea here is to increase the success of larger efforts
>  than adding codecs and refactoring code)
> It would then also not be possible for individuals to object
> to a previously agreed goal.
> And it would add ideas for which we can try to get funding/grants for
>
> (larger scale changes need consensus first that we as a whole want
>  them before we would be able to ask for funding/grants for them)
>
> Some ideas and why they would help FFmpeg:
>
> * Switch to a plugin architecture
>  (Increase the number of developers willing to contribute and reduce
>  friction as the team and community grows)
>

Just no.


> * ffchat
>  (expand into realtime chat / zoom) this would
>  bring in more users and developers, and we basically have almost
>

Better leave that for others.
There's an infinite amount of discord clones already.


>  all parts for it already but some people where against it
> * client side / in browser support
>  (expand towards webapps, webpages using ffmpeg client side in the browser)
>  bring in more users and developers, and it will be costly for us
>  if we let others take this area as its important and significant
>

Maybe. Some WASM-based converter would be helpful.
Though it may put us on fire, as we'd be distributing binaries
of our code which may cause issues with "rights holders".


> * AI / neural network filters and codecs
>  The future seems to be AI based. Future Filters and Codecs will use
>  neural networks. FFmpeg can be at the forefront, developing these
>

These take enormous amounts of compute power to
train, vast amounts of good high-quality data, and at
the end, you'd have something as lasting as wet paper,
because a competitor is literally weeks away, and they
beat us with inferior methods by simply having vastly
more compute than we do.


> * [your idea here]
>

We keep doing what we're doing. It's what we're good at.