Split general problems section into general questions and usage.

Originally committed as revision 11614 to svn://svn.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg/trunk

1 files changed, 92 insertions, 90 deletions

diff --git a/doc/faq.texi b/doc/faq.texi
index 1272a78c8f..9dff3b0262 100644
--- a/doc/faq.texi
+++ b/doc/faq.texi
@@ -8,7 +8,56 @@
 @end titlepage
 
 
-@chapter General Problems
+@chapter General Questions
+
+@section When will the next FFmpeg version be released? / Why are FFmpeg releases so few and far between?
+
+Like most open source projects FFmpeg suffers from a certain lack of
+manpower. For this reason the developers have to prioritize the work
+they do and putting out releases is not at the top of the list, fixing
+bugs and reviewing patches takes precedence. Please don't complain or
+request more timely and/or frequent releases unless you are willing to
+help out creating them.
+
+@section I have a problem with an old version of FFmpeg; where should I report it?
+Nowhere. Upgrade to the latest release or if there is no recent release upgrade
+to Subversion HEAD. You could also try to report it. Maybe you will get lucky and
+become the first person in history to get an answer different from "upgrade
+to Subversion HEAD".
+
+@section Why doesn't FFmpeg support feature [xyz]?
+
+Because no one has taken on that task yet. FFmpeg development is
+driven by the tasks that are important to the individual developers.
+If there is a feature that is important to you, the best way to get
+it implemented is to undertake the task yourself.
+
+@section FFmpeg does not support codec XXX. Can you include a Windows DLL loader to support it?
+
+No. FFmpeg only supports open source codecs. Windows DLLs are not
+portable, bloated and often slow.
+
+@section My bugreport/mail to ffmpeg-devel/user has not received any replies.
+
+Likely reasons
+@itemize
+@item We are busy and haven't had time yet to read your report or
+investigate the issue.
+@item You didn't follow bugreports.html.
+@item You didn't use Subversion HEAD.
+@item You reported a segmentation fault without gdb output.
+@item You describe a problem but not how to reproduce it.
+@item It's unclear if you use ffmpeg as command line tool or use
+libav* from another application.
+@item You speak about a video having problems on playback but
+not what you use to play it.
+@item We have no faint clue what you are talking about besides
+that it is related to FFmpeg.
+@end itemize
+
+@section Is there a forum for FFmpeg? I do not like mailing lists.
+
+Yes, (@url{http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.user}).
 
 @section I cannot read this file although this format seems to be supported by ffmpeg.
 
@@ -16,6 +65,48 @@ Even if ffmpeg can read the file format, it may not support all its
 codecs. Please consult the supported codec list in the ffmpeg
 documentation.
 
+@section Which codecs are supported by Windows?
+
+Windows does not support standard formats like MPEG very well, unless you
+install some additional codecs
+
+The following list of video codecs should work on most Windows systems:
+@table @option
+@item msmpeg4v2
+.avi/.asf
+@item msmpeg4
+.asf only
+@item wmv1
+.asf only
+@item wmv2
+.asf only
+@item mpeg4
+only if you have some MPEG-4 codec installed like ffdshow or XviD
+@item mpeg1
+.mpg only
+@end table
+Note, ASF files often have .wmv or .wma extensions in Windows. It should also
+be mentioned that Microsoft claims a patent on the ASF format, and may sue
+or threaten users who create ASF files with non-Microsoft software. It is
+strongly advised to avoid ASF where possible.
+
+The following list of audio codecs should work on most Windows systems:
+@table @option
+@item adpcm_ima_wav
+@item adpcm_ms
+@item pcm
+@item mp3
+if some MP3 codec like LAME is installed
+@end table
+
+
+@chapter Usage
+
+@section ffmpeg does not work; What is wrong?
+
+Try a 'make distclean' in the ffmpeg source directory before the build. If this does not help see
+(@url{http://ffmpeg.org/bugreports.html}).
+
 @section How do I encode single pictures to movies?
 
 First, rename your pictures to follow a numerical sequence.
@@ -58,11 +149,6 @@ Applying that to the previous example:
 
 Beware that there is no "jpeg" codec. Use "mjpeg" instead.
 
-@section FFmpeg does not support codec XXX. Can you include a Windows DLL loader to support it?
-
-No. FFmpeg only supports open source codecs. Windows DLLs are not
-portable, bloated and often slow.
-
 @section I get "Unsupported codec (id=86043) for input stream #0.1". What is the problem?
 
 This is the Qcelp codec, FFmpeg has no support for that codec currently. Try mencoder/mplayer it might work.
@@ -85,40 +171,6 @@ Enable AC-3 decoding with @code{./configure --enable-gpl}. Take care: By
 enabling AC-3, you automatically change the license of libavcodec from
 LGPL to GPL.
 
-@section Which codecs are supported by Windows?
-
-Windows does not support standard formats like MPEG very well, unless you
-install some additional codecs
-
-The following list of video codecs should work on most Windows systems:
-@table @option
-@item msmpeg4v2
-.avi/.asf
-@item msmpeg4
-.asf only
-@item wmv1
-.asf only
-@item wmv2
-.asf only
-@item mpeg4
-only if you have some MPEG-4 codec installed like ffdshow or XviD
-@item mpeg1
-.mpg only
-@end table
-Note, ASF files often have .wmv or .wma extensions in Windows. It should also
-be mentioned that Microsoft claims a patent on the ASF format, and may sue
-or threaten users who create ASF files with non-Microsoft software. It is
-strongly advised to avoid ASF where possible.
-
-The following list of audio codecs should work on most Windows systems:
-@table @option
-@item adpcm_ima_wav
-@item adpcm_ms
-@item pcm
-@item mp3
-if some MP3 codec like LAME is installed
-@end table
-
 @section Why does the chrominance data seem to be sampled at a different time from the luminance data on bt8x8 captures on Linux?
 
 This is a well-known bug in the bt8x8 driver. For 2.4.26 there is a patch at
@@ -132,12 +184,6 @@ will cause somewhat too strong filtering. A fix is to apply (@url{http://svn.mpl
 or (@url{http://svn.mplayerhq.hu/michael/trunk/patches/bttv-comb-2.6.6.patch?view=co})
 and pass 'combfilter=2'.
 
-@section I have a problem with an old version of ffmpeg; where should I report it?
-Nowhere. Upgrade to the latest release or if there is no recent release upgrade
-to Subversion HEAD. You could also try to report it. Maybe you will get lucky and
-become the first person in history to get an answer different from "upgrade
-to Subversion HEAD".
-
 @section -f jpeg doesn't work.
 
 Try '-f image2 test%d.jpg'.
@@ -147,11 +193,6 @@ Try '-f image2 test%d.jpg'.
 Some codecs, like MPEG-1/2, only allow a small number of fixed framerates.
 Choose a different codec with the -vcodec command line option.
 
-@section ffmpeg does not work; What is wrong?
-
-Try a 'make distclean' in the ffmpeg source directory before the build. If this does not help see
-(@url{http://ffmpeg.org/bugreports.html}).
-
 @section How do I encode XviD or DivX video with ffmpeg?
 
 Both XviD and DivX (version 4+) are implementations of the ISO MPEG-4
@@ -231,24 +272,6 @@ Just create an "input.avs" text file with this single line ...
 
 For ANY other help on Avisynth, please visit @url{http://www.avisynth.org/}.
 
-@section My bugreport/mail to ffmpeg-devel/user has not received any replies.
-
-Likely reasons
-@itemize
-@item We are busy and haven't had time yet to read your report or
-investigate the issue.
-@item You didn't follow bugreports.html.
-@item You didn't use Subversion HEAD.
-@item You reported a segmentation fault without gdb output.
-@item You describe a problem but not how to reproduce it.
-@item It's unclear if you use ffmpeg as command line tool or use
-libav* from another application.
-@item You speak about a video having problems on playback but
-not what you use to play it.
-@item We have no faint clue what you are talking about besides
-that it is related to FFmpeg.
-@end itemize
-
 @section How can I join video files?
 
 A few multimedia containers (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 PS, DV) allow to join video files by
@@ -306,10 +329,6 @@ ffmpeg -f u16le -acodec pcm_s16le -ac 2 -ar 44100 -i all.a \
 rm temp[12].[av] all.[av]
 @end example
 
-@section Is there a forum for FFmpeg? I do not like mailing lists.
-
-Yes, (@url{http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.user}).
-
 @section FFmpeg does not adhere to the -maxrate setting, some frames are bigger than maxrate/fps.
 
 Read the MPEG spec about video buffer verifier.
@@ -330,23 +349,6 @@ examining all of the vbv_delay values and making complicated computations."
 
 @chapter Development
 
-@section When will the next FFmpeg version be released? / Why are FFmpeg releases so few and far between?
-
-Like most open source projects FFmpeg suffers from a certain lack of
-manpower. For this reason the developers have to prioritize the work
-they do and putting out releases is not at the top of the list, fixing
-bugs and reviewing patches takes precedence. Please don't complain or
-request more timely and/or frequent releases unless you are willing to
-help out creating them.
-
-@section Why doesn't FFmpeg support feature [xyz]?
-
-Because no one has taken on that task yet. FFmpeg development is
-driven by the tasks that are important to the individual developers.
-If there is a feature that is important to you, the best way to get
-it implemented is to undertake the task yourself.
-
-
 @section Are there examples illustrating how to use the FFmpeg libraries, particularly libavcodec and libavformat?
 
 Yes. Read the Developers Guide of the FFmpeg documentation. Alternatively,