Rather than splicing Google’s VP8 implementation into the open source FFmpeg project, the developers are creating their own VP8 implementation.
Ars Technica’s Ryan Paul has the story.
“Building on top of FFmpeg will allow them to take advantage of a substantial body of existing code. FFmpeg already supports previous iterations of the codec, such as VP5 and VP6, which share some common characteristics with VP8. According to [Ronald] Bultje, some of the optimizations developed for FFmpeg’s H.264 and VP5/6 code can be shared seamlessly with the new VP8 implementation. This approach will lead to a smaller footprint than if the developers were to simply graft Google’s code into FFmpeg,” Paul reported.
The theory is that their native VP8 decoder will be perform better than Google’s because the developers can leverage the existing FFmpeg codebase.
“The pattern here,” FFmpeg developer Bultje wrote, “is that since each libXYZ has to reinvent its own wheel, they’ll always fall short of reaching the top. FFmpeg comes closer simply because our existing wheels are like what you’d want on your next sports car.”
