bug#18814: ffmpeg 2.4.2 upgrade broke vlc

[Mark H Weaver]

Jason Self <address@hidden> writes:

> commit 7947a05439cc26d93bd93300f38d216dbb93c76d
> Author: Jason Self <address@hidden>
> Date:   Mon Oct 20 12:32:42 2014 -0700
>
>     gnu: ffmpeg: Update to 2.4.2.
>     
>     * gnu/packages/video.scm (ffmpeg): Update to version 2.4.2.

This broke the vlc build with the following error:

  checking for AVCODEC... yes
  configure: error: libavcodec versions 56 and later are not supported yet.

See:

  http://hydra.gnu.org/job/gnu/master/vlc-2.1.4.x86_64-linux
  http://hydra.gnu.org/job/gnu/master/vlc-2.1.4.i686-linux

I tried upgrading vlc to the latest release (2.1.5), but it didn't help:

  http://hydra.gnu.org/job/gnu/master/vlc-2.1.5.x86_64-linux
  http://hydra.gnu.org/job/gnu/master/vlc-2.1.5.i686-linux

Two solutions come to mind:

* Add an alternate 'ffmpeg-2.3' package (in addition to 2.4.x) for use
  by vlc.

* Look for upstream vlc patches that fix this problem.

Jason, would you like to look into it?

     Mark