New features in this long-awaited release:

• Initial Symbian support for GPAC
• Massive memory optimizations for the 2D renderer and SVG scenes
• Better LASeR support
• ALSA output module
• Linux DVB support
• JPEG-2000 support through OpenJPEG library
• Major improvements in the SAX parser
• Support for multiple RTSP session per SDP
• Global log system
• mp4_streamer, a simple uni/multicaster for MP4/3GP files, working without hint tracks. This tool van also be used to simulate DVB-H service bursts
• mp42ts, a draft MPEG-2 TS multiplexer. The multiplexer only supports MPEG-2 Video, MPEG-1 video and MPEG-1 audio. It is capable of outputing to a file or to a rtp/udp port. The source programs can either be local ISO Media files or SDP files describing a uni/multicast already setup (no RTSP support).
• And of course the usual lot of bug fixes and other improvements …

Check the complete changelog.

This release has a lot of new features, among which:

• GPAC plugins for both Mozilla and Internet Explorer browsers – look here for more details
• Support for SmartPhone 2003 and PocketPC 2003 platforms, with experimental 3D support through OpenGL ES
• Many SVG improvements (gradients, SVG 1.2 uDOM scripting, DOM events, etc.)
• Draft MPEG-4 LASeR support – WARNING the LASeR standard is still under editing, INCLUDING bitstream syntax. This means that LASeR support in GPAC is completely experimental, encoded scenes will be broken in next release.
• MP4Client now supports screenshots/raw avi extraction from any supported file (MP42AVI is now deprecated)
• New media import/export XML-based format NHML extending NHNT capabilities
• Configurable progressive rendering of all XML-based scene descriptions
• Initial IPV6 support
• MPEG-2 TS support (demultiplexer only) – this feature is under heavy development at the current time, this is more a “preview” than anything else, but it should be quite stable in MP4Box.
• Support for VobSub subtitles in MP4Box (mux/demux) thanks to a great patch from Falco
• MPEG-1/2 raw video import
• Simple iTune tagging for MP4Box thanks to a patch from Andrew Voznytsa
• And of course the usual lot of bug fixes and other improvements …

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).