On Sat, 22 Jan 2011, Martin Schlander wrote:
Fredag den 21. januar 2011 21:52:26 skrev todd rme:
A new phonon version is now out:
http://apachelog.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/phonon-family-4-4-4/
This part was particularly significant in my opinion:
"Last but not least we changed the default priorities of backends on Linux. To get the best experience you should now either use GStreamer or VLC. The former preferred choice Xine is as of now considered unmaintained and should not be used anymore."
The openSUSE version, however, defaults to xine, and the VLC version is not available from the openSUSE or KDE:Distro:Factory repositories at all.
I know that there was some talk about moving the phonon-VLC backend and the stripped-down VLC components from playground to KDE:Distro:Factory for 11.4, but I think this makes it more pressing. The way they mention indicates they think it is ready for use.
Either way, should we change the default backend to gstreamer (or VLC if it is moved)?
It might be a good idea to have Phonon prefer VLC backend _if_ installed.
But as for defaulting to gstreamer I have some doubts. Xine worksforme and we need libxine1 for Kaffeine anyway.
Also what good is it if the gstreamer phonon-backend is theoretically "better", if gstreamer itself is b0rked. I'm not a gstreamer expert, but I often heard about issues with Packman gstreamer packages. Isn't gstreamer an unmaintainable, steaming pile of sh*t from a packaging point of view?
And either way, making gstreamer the default phonon backend will complicate codec installation substantially. Now you just need libxine1-codecs from packman and Amarok and Kaffeine will "just work" - if phonon uses gstreamer people need libxine1-codecs for Kaffeine and 5.000 gstreamer packages and strange libs constantly breaking compatibility with each other.
Also I'd like to know what the problems with xine are supposed to be, before I just take someone's word for it, that I shouldn't use it.
Well aside from the pure reason of code-security (unmaintained) of xine itself there's also the risk of the not really mainained codecs. As such it's a big NO-NO for any coming distro. One doesn't include unmaintained packages if one can help it. This cleared, I'd like to ask about the state of any of the various phonon-backends. GStreamer: We've heard by now, that amarok with phonon-backend-gstreamer doens't support fade, and the EQ isn't working. VLC: Amarok doesn't play at all. Xine: Works now, but becomes more and more risky Others?? Is there a mplayer backend - just asking? What's the state of confusion/work/art in other Jukebox/Player-Apps? What can be done to get at least one other backend (other than xine) to work with Amarok too? Please dear gurus give us users some enlightment :-> Cheers, Yamaban out -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-kde+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-kde+help@opensuse.org