diff --git a/m4/as-slurp-ffmpeg.m4 b/m4/as-slurp-ffmpeg.m4
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f520a2e075
--- /dev/null
+++ b/m4/as-slurp-ffmpeg.m4
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+dnl slurp-ffmpeg.m4 0.1.0
+dnl a macro to slurp in ffmpeg's cvs source inside a project tree
+dnl taken from Autostar Sandbox, http://autostars.sourceforge.net/
+
+dnl Usage:
+dnl AS_SLURP_FFMPEG(DIRECTORY, DATE, [ACTION-IF-FOUND [, ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND]]])
+dnl
+dnl Example:
+dnl AM_PATH_FFMPEG(lib/ffmpeg, "2002-12-14 12:00 GMT")
+nl
+
+AC_DEFUN(AS_SLURP_FFMPEG,
+[
+  # save original dir
+  DIRECTORY=`pwd`
+  # get/update cvs
+  if test ! -d $1; then mkdir -p $1; fi
+  cd $1
+
+  if test ! -d ffmpeg; then
+    # check out cvs code
+    AC_MSG_NOTICE(checking out ffmpeg cvs code from $2 into $1)
+    cvs -Q -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg co -D $2 ffmpeg || FAILED=yes
+    cd ffmpeg
+  else
+    cd ffmpeg 
+    AC_MSG_NOTICE(updating ffmpeg cvs code)
+    cvs -Q update -dP -D $2 || FAILED=yes
+  fi
+  
+  # now configure it
+  ./configure
+
+  # now go back
+  cd $DIRECTORY
+
+  if test "x$FAILED" == "xyes"; then
+    [$4]
+  else
+    [$3]
+  fi
+])