Dropping support for GStreamer 1.2/1.4 (Ubuntu Trusty/Vivid)
Written for Novacut by Jason Gerard DeRose on 2015-10-10
In terms of the needs of Novacut, GStreamer 1.6 is an absolutely stunning release! So a huge thanks to everyone in the GStreamer community whose hard work made it happen!
The new rendering backend introduced with Novacut 15.08 was written to work with GStreamer 1.2 through 1.6:
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However, as we refine our new rendering backend and prepare to start adding new features, the burden of continuing to support GStreamer 1.2 and 1.4 has become difficult to justify. GStreamer 1.2 is especially problematic as it requires many work-arounds and even then can't always produce correct results (not even with perfectly conformant input videos).
As these new Novacut features will likely be a bit rough around the edges at first anyway, it seems like a good time to stop making new Novacut releases on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty) and Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid). Instead, we'll set our sights on a great Novacut release for the next Ubuntu LTS (16.04, due out in April 2016).
So as it stands now, the plan is that Novacut 15.08 will be the last Novacut release that supports Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 15.04. In the meantime, you'll still be able to install Novacut 15.08 on Trusty and Vivid as those builds wont be going anywhere. But during the next 6 months, new Novacut releases will only be made for Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily) and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (X).
Depending on how things shake out, we might make additional releases that support Ubuntu 14.04 LTS for some of the six components beneath Dmedia in the Novacut stack (UserWebKit, UserCouch, Microfiber, FileStore, Degu, and Dbase32). But as Novacut and Dmedia both directly use GStreamer, their future releases will only target GStreamer 1.6 and newer.
Our long-term goal is to support new Novacut releases on the current Ubuntu LTS till the next Ubuntu LTS is released, and we came pretty close this time around (the closest we have thus far, actually). But change happens and sometimes you need to cut your losses and move forward :)
Apologies to anyone negatively impacted by this plan. I'm confident we can make it up to you with exciting future Novacut releases that will be waiting for you whenever you're ready to upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
Cheers,
-Jason
