diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 8084a0734d..2b679d6b85 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1226,7 +1226,13 @@ AG_GST_CHECK_FEATURE(OFA, [ofa plugins], ofa, [
 dnl *** opencv ***
 translit(dnm, m, l) AM_CONDITIONAL(USE_OPENCV, true)
 AG_GST_CHECK_FEATURE(OPENCV, [opencv plugins], opencv, [
-  PKG_CHECK_MODULES(OPENCV, opencv >= 2.0.0 libswscale >= 0.7 , [
+  dnl we specify a max. version too because we set CV_NO_BACKWARD_COMPATIBILITY
+  dnl and don't want the build to break when a new opencv version comes out.
+  dnl Need to adjust this upwards once we know that our code compiles fine with
+  dnl a new version and the no-backward-compatibility define. (There doesn't
+  dnl seem to be a switch to suppress the warnings the cvcompat.h header
+  dnl causes.)
+  PKG_CHECK_MODULES(OPENCV, opencv >= 2.0.0 opencv <= 2.1.0 libswscale >= 0.7 , [
     AC_PROG_CXX
     AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS
     OLD_CPPFLAGS=$CPPFLAGS
diff --git a/ext/opencv/Makefile.am b/ext/opencv/Makefile.am
index feed68e6aa..7ddbe05d1a 100644
--- a/ext/opencv/Makefile.am
+++ b/ext/opencv/Makefile.am
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ libgstopencv_la_SOURCES = gstopencv.c \
 # override CV_INLINE: GLib will take care of defining 'inline' sufficiently and
 # OpenCV's define isn't good enough to avoid 'unused' gcc warnings (at v2.1.0)
 libgstopencv_la_CFLAGS = $(GST_CFLAGS) $(GST_BASE_CFLAGS) $(OPENCV_CFLAGS) \
-	$(GST_PLUGINS_BASE_CFLAGS) -DCV_INLINE="static inline"
+	$(GST_PLUGINS_BASE_CFLAGS) -DCV_INLINE="static inline" \
+	-DCV_NO_BACKWARD_COMPATIBILITY
 
 libgstopencv_la_LIBADD = $(GST_LIBS) $(GST_BASE_LIBS) $(OPENCV_LIBS) \
 			$(GSTPB_BASE_LIBS) -lgstvideo-$(GST_MAJORMINOR)