GPAC is from now on licensed under LGPL. This release is mainly a major API rewrite of the core library, now called libgpac. All APIs are no longer backward compatible, but most of them should now be in a frozen state for GPAC’s lifetime. Note that due to massive code rewrite this release is not considered as stable as 0.3.0, although no serious issues have been identified. Apart from the license change and API redesign, GPAC 0.4.0 also features some interesting things:

• Support for anamorphic video (MPEG-4 Visual importer and all decoders supporting it)
• X11 video output support with integration in Osmo4/wxWidgets
• OSS audio output support has been updated, GPAC can now be used without SDL at all on Linux.
• Stable version of osmozilla, the GPAC plugin for Mozilla-based browsers, tested under Win32 and linux. This plugin is in its early development stage, the scripting API spec has not been produced yet (only Play, Pause and Reload methods are currently available for testing). Any scripting request from GPAC users for this plugin are more than welcome.
• LATM RTP depacketizer support for GPAC clients.
• Various fixes and updates in MP4Box (media language, ttxt and srt importing, track-based importing options).

This release also marks the start of the gpac core documentation which is under writing. You may have a look at it by generating it with doxygen (cf GPAC install documentation).

GPAC is officially back at ENST, hence this new numbering jump. The most important new feature is the support of fixed-point in the whole framework, with successfull testing on WinCE/PocketPC 2002 devices. But there are also many new things in MP4Box:

• IsoMedia file splitting by size or duration, and support for chunk extraction.
• File concatenation for all supported media types (eg, join directly a set of AVIs to a single MP4).
• LATM RTP hinter for AAC.
• Chapter info (Nero-like), media language and media delay tools.
• Much more reliable AVC/H264 importer

Regarding GPAC client core, many optimisations have been done while intergating fixed-point, especially on 2D path objects which are no longer represented as flattened (thanks to freetype). For the rest, let’s just quote:

• wxOsmo4 now builds with wxWidgets+unicode
• more efficient SVG renderer
• And still many fixes here, there and everywhere…

Many new things on the authoring side in this release:

• lifting of MP4Box (nicer help screens, progress reports and options cleaning). MP4Box usage is slightly different, make sure you read this first !!
• 3GPP2 tools (importers/exporters/hinters for EVRC, QCELP and SMV codecs).
• Support for ISMA E&A (ISMACryp specification) in MP4Box including hinting, and some support in players.
• More AVC/H264 (raw importer, exporter, hinter) and AVC B-slice support through ffmpeg.
• More 3GPP/MPEG-4 text support (SUB subtitles and QT TeXML import, track extraction to SRT).
• Many fixes in MP4Box hinters (AMR, MPA bandwidth signaling) and enhancement (RTP aggregation for non-MPEG-4 payloads).
• Support for AMR and AMR-WB with 3GPP floating-point code in players (much faster).
• H263 and raw MPEG-4 video (CMP/M4V) importers.
• Experimental streaming cache in osmo4 (w32 and linux) for media recording (and I do mean experimental…)
• Many, many, many fixes here, there and everywhere…

And for the first time in a year or so, Osmo4 on PocketPC (2D only) has been stabilized and is much more usable!

Many new things in this release:

• AAC-ADTS format (including internet radios), HE-AAC/AAC-SBR/aacPlus support, AMR raw format
• 3GPP timed text (encoding/decoding/playback) and streaming (RTP packetizer and reassembler). Added SRT to 3GP text conversion.
• AVC/H264 through ffmpeg along with YAIFDA (Yet Another Improved FFmpeg Demuxer Announcement).
• Playlist and browser-like navigation in Osmo4 (w32 and wx)
• MP4Box improvements:
  • MPEG-1/2 PS to MP4 and MPEG 1/2 video hinters (thanks to MPEG4IP)
  • Easy Multitrack MP4/3GP creation
  • 3GP timed text tools (conversion, extraction)
  • AAC-ADTS and raw AMR support.
• More X3D support and 3D fixes
• Reworked multichannel audio mixer, including multichannel->stereo converter
• Stream selection (when possible) in Osmo4
• PocketPC version should be usable (not entirely tested though 🙂

The GPAC Regression Tests have been updated (mainly X3D tests) and are available for download.

GPAC after a lifting… Many architectural changes since last release (GPAC core is now a shared library) but also new features:

• Support for OGG format (including icecast streams), Vorbis and Theora codecs
• Support for Shoutcast streams
• Improved ffmpeg demuxer.
• GPAC now relies on mime types for file associations.
• X3D integration (both XML and VRML formats)
• More VRML/X3D support: GZip’ed worlds, multiple URL, viewpoint addressing in URLs and Anchor
• Decoding and network stats in all GUIs

The LGPL libm4isomedia has also been updated and is available for download.