Re: [Audacity-devel] FFMPEG installer

[Gale A. <ga...@au...>]

| From Martyn Shaw <mar...@go...> 
| Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:39:55 +0100
| Subject: [Audacity-devel] FFMPEG installer
> Gale Andrews wrote:
> > | From Martyn Shaw <mar...@go...> 
> > | Tue, 4 Aug 2009 14:14:54 +0100
> > | Subject: [Audacity-devel] FFMPEG installer
> >> At work I can't install things on my PC so I got the zip version of
> >> 1.3.8 and put it on my drive and it runs fine.  I wanted to use FFMPEG
> >> however so got the installer for that but it won't run, due to the
> >> same restrictions.  Is there a zip version of that please?
> > 
> > Is it worth maintaining a zip as well as an installer of FFmpeg? 
> > Installers considerably reduce support time compared to 
> > zip (many Windows users can't cope with zip). 
> 
> If we don't have a zip then users like me at work (=same access rights 
> to the machine as a student at my uni) can't use FFMPEG.
> 
> 
> > A zip of FFmpeg would need separate (and more complex)
> > instructions on the FAQ page, unless we assumed zip users 
> > can manage with only a link and no instructions (maybe a 
> > reasonable assumption)? 
> 
> Try without instructions?  If they have installed Audacity from a zip 
> then they will have a good idea already.  If people ask for 
> instructions, at least it will only need doing once on the FAQ.

Where Audacity is used in a corporate/institutional setting I'd
imagine IT could always do a logon script trick so that each copy 
of Audacity linked to a copy of FFmpeg that IT installed somewhere.

However, it's a fair point. I'll go with making a Windows zip for 
FFmpeg, and either providing a link to that on:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=FAQ:Installation_and_Plug-Ins#installffmpeg

or linking to Buanzo's site and getting the zip up there. That's
what we do for LAME,  for which there is an installer and a zip.
However with the FFmpeg installers changing (and being revised) 
frequently, it's been easier not to do that so far. There's no 
feasible, non-confusing way to provide step-by-step FFmpeg zip
instructions on the FAQ, in addition to the installer instructions. 


> > If we need a Windows zip, do we need a Mac zip as well? 
> 
> I don't know if Mac users have the same problems with paranoid sys 
> admins ;-)

Possibly not, but irrespective of that, there may be administrative 
access issues with the LAME and FFmpeg installers on Mac. I'll 
start a new thread about that. 



Gale