[gst-devel] Gstreamer and matroska - the opensource answer to VideoforWindows/AVI and Quicktime/MOV ?

[Ronald S. Bultje]

Hi Chris,

the long-awaited answer that I promised a while ago. Please note that I
speak on personal title only, as a GStreamer developer, but not as a
GStreamer representative as such.

I'll first answer your brainstorming by explaining what GStreamer's aim
is: it is world domination. My personal goals are much simpler. I am
interested solely in the Linux platform, for any supported arch out
there, and my personal goal is to bring media to the desktop on this
wonderful OS. If it runs on any other OS, I'll be happy for the people
that care, but I won't care much myself. As a user, I'm specifically
attracted to GNOME/GStreamer as a combination. As a developer, I have an
interest for KDE/GStreamer, too. Quicktime/Directshow are nothing more
than vague alternatives for me on other OSes. I don't know them, nor do
I want to.

GStreamer is not bound to a single container, nor does it need a
preferred one. Users use individually preferred containers. If we would
ever want to set automated preferences (planned for 0.9.x by me), I'd
give any open format a higher preference than a closed one. Obviously,
(example) Matroska would be preferred over (example) ASF. However, Ogg
and Matroska would be evenly preferred. I don't want to bind to a single
container because I don't see that as an obvious task for a media
framework.

On Wed, 2004-02-18 at 16:27, Christian HJ Wiesner wrote:
[..] 
> I am well aware gstreamer doesnt need matroska at all. Your way is 
> clear, becoming the best media framework for the Linux world, and you 
> guys wont mind if your project is ported to other OSes also, as this can 
> only help you to achieve your goals, for sure. You could also settle for 
> MOV as standard container, as there are currently no features realized 
> in matroska that MOV cant do also, or have no standard container at all. 
> On the other hand, you could win a couple of contributors and fans with 
> such an 'alliance', if you allow me to name it like that. Opinions 
> please, and use the 'reply all' button if i may ask for that, to copy 
> both lists. Stupid idea ? Useless ? Possible ? Tell me what you think ....

Nice marketing try ( ;) ), but it's not what I'd want.

Ronald