diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index fccda2566c..aa62bf889d 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+2007-01-05  Tim-Philipp Müller  <tim at centricular dot net>
+
+	* configure.ac:
+	* gst/qtdemux/Makefile.am:
+	* gst/qtdemux/qtdemux.c: (qtdemux_parse_moov):
+	  Check for zlib and if available pass it explicitly to the linker
+	  when linking qtdemux. If not available (or --disable-external has
+	  been specified!), disable the bits in qtdemux that use it. Fixes
+	  build on MingW (#392856).
+
 2007-01-05  Edward Hervey  <edward@fluendo.com>
 
 	* configure.ac:
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 6735786f8e..e0c71400e8 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -821,6 +821,17 @@ GST_CHECK_FEATURE(DVB, [DVB Source], dvb, [
   AC_CHECK_HEADER(linux/dvb/frontend.h, [HAVE_DVB="yes"], [HAVE_DVB="no"])
 ])
 
+dnl *** qtdemux prefers to have zlib ***
+translit(dnm, m, l) AM_CONDITIONAL(USE_ZLIB, true)
+GST_CHECK_FEATURE(ZLIB, [zlib support for qtdemux],, [
+  GST_CHECK_LIBHEADER(ZLIB,
+    z, uncompress,, zlib.h, [
+    HAVE_ZLIB="yes"
+    ZLIB_LIBS="-lz"
+    AC_SUBST(ZLIB_LIBS)
+  ])
+])
+
 else
 
 dnl not building plugins with external dependencies,
@@ -851,6 +862,7 @@ AM_CONDITIONAL(USE_THEORADEC, false)
 AM_CONDITIONAL(USE_XVID, false)
 AM_CONDITIONAL(USE_WAVPACK, false)
 AM_CONDITIONAL(USE_DVB, false)
+AM_CONDITIONAL(USE_ZLIB, false)
 
 fi dnl of EXT plugins
 
diff --git a/gst/qtdemux/Makefile.am b/gst/qtdemux/Makefile.am
index f65f337e29..1f480365c3 100644
--- a/gst/qtdemux/Makefile.am
+++ b/gst/qtdemux/Makefile.am
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 plugin_LTLIBRARIES = libgstqtdemux.la
 
 libgstqtdemux_la_CFLAGS = ${GST_CFLAGS}
-libgstqtdemux_la_LIBADD = $(GST_BASE_LIBS)
+libgstqtdemux_la_LIBADD = $(GST_BASE_LIBS) $(ZLIB_LIBS)
 libgstqtdemux_la_LDFLAGS = ${GST_PLUGIN_LDFLAGS} 
 libgstqtdemux_la_SOURCES = qtdemux.c
 
diff --git a/gst/qtdemux/qtdemux.c b/gst/qtdemux/qtdemux.c
index 2b62f48117..acf5861a36 100644
--- a/gst/qtdemux/qtdemux.c
+++ b/gst/qtdemux/qtdemux.c
@@ -29,7 +29,10 @@
 
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <string.h>
-#include <zlib.h>
+
+#ifdef HAVE_ZLIB
+# include <zlib.h>
+#endif
 
 GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_STATIC (qtdemux_debug);
 #define GST_CAT_DEFAULT qtdemux_debug
@@ -2086,6 +2089,7 @@ static const QtNodeType qt_node_types[] = {
 };
 static int n_qt_node_types = sizeof (qt_node_types) / sizeof (qt_node_types[0]);
 
+#ifdef HAVE_ZLIB
 
 static void *
 qtdemux_zalloc (void *opaque, unsigned int items, unsigned int size)
@@ -2135,6 +2139,8 @@ qtdemux_inflate (void *z_buffer, int z_length, int length)
   return buffer;
 }
 
+#endif /* HAVE_ZLIB */
+
 static void
 qtdemux_parse_moov (GstQTDemux * qtdemux, guint8 * buffer, int length)
 {
@@ -2147,32 +2153,41 @@ qtdemux_parse_moov (GstQTDemux * qtdemux, guint8 * buffer, int length)
 
   cmov = qtdemux_tree_get_child_by_type (qtdemux->moov_node, FOURCC_cmov);
   if (cmov) {
+    guint32 method;
     GNode *dcom;
     GNode *cmvd;
 
     dcom = qtdemux_tree_get_child_by_type (cmov, FOURCC_dcom);
     cmvd = qtdemux_tree_get_child_by_type (cmov, FOURCC_cmvd);
 
-    if (QTDEMUX_FOURCC_GET ((guint8 *) dcom->data + 8) == GST_MAKE_FOURCC ('z',
-            'l', 'i', 'b')) {
-      int uncompressed_length;
-      int compressed_length;
-      guint8 *buf;
+    method = QTDEMUX_FOURCC_GET ((guint8 *) dcom->data + 8);
+    switch (method) {
+#ifdef HAVE_ZLIB
+      case GST_MAKE_FOURCC ('z', 'l', 'i', 'b'):{
+        int uncompressed_length;
+        int compressed_length;
+        guint8 *buf;
 
-      uncompressed_length = QTDEMUX_GUINT32_GET ((guint8 *) cmvd->data + 8);
-      compressed_length = QTDEMUX_GUINT32_GET ((guint8 *) cmvd->data + 4) - 12;
-      GST_LOG ("length = %d", uncompressed_length);
+        uncompressed_length = QTDEMUX_GUINT32_GET ((guint8 *) cmvd->data + 8);
+        compressed_length =
+            QTDEMUX_GUINT32_GET ((guint8 *) cmvd->data + 4) - 12;
+        GST_LOG ("length = %d", uncompressed_length);
 
-      buf =
-          (guint8 *) qtdemux_inflate ((guint8 *) cmvd->data + 12,
-          compressed_length, uncompressed_length);
+        buf =
+            (guint8 *) qtdemux_inflate ((guint8 *) cmvd->data + 12,
+            compressed_length, uncompressed_length);
 
-      qtdemux->moov_node_compressed = qtdemux->moov_node;
-      qtdemux->moov_node = g_node_new (buf);
+        qtdemux->moov_node_compressed = qtdemux->moov_node;
+        qtdemux->moov_node = g_node_new (buf);
 
-      qtdemux_parse (qtdemux, qtdemux->moov_node, buf, uncompressed_length);
-    } else {
-      GST_LOG ("unknown header compression type");
+        qtdemux_parse (qtdemux, qtdemux->moov_node, buf, uncompressed_length);
+        break;
+      }
+#endif /* HAVE_ZLIB */
+      default:
+        GST_WARNING_OBJECT (qtdemux, "unknown or unhandled header compression "
+            "type %" GST_FOURCC_FORMAT, GST_FOURCC_ARGS (method));
+        break;
     }
   }
 }