gstreamer/2013.6+Congo.markdown

# 2013.6 Congo

# Release – GStreamer SDK 2013.6 Congo

**2013-06-12 // [http://www.gstreamer.com](http://www.gstreamer.com/)**

This release is targeted at media playback applications for desktop and
mobile systems.

For more information about the GStreamer SDK and the latest versions
please visit [http://www.gstreamer.com](http://www.gstreamer.com/)

## System Requirements

The GStreamer SDK currently supports Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X,
different Linux distributions, Android and iOS.

Future releases of the GStreamer SDK will add support for possibly other
platforms.

### Linux

The supported Linux distributions are currently

  - Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin)

  - Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal)

  - Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail)

  - Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)

  - Debian 7.0 (Wheezy)

  - Fedora 17

  - Fedora 18

for x86 (32 bit) and x86-64 (64 bit).

Support for more Linux distributions will be added on demand later.

For installation instructions and development environment setup
instructions see [Installing on Linux](Installing%2Bon%2BLinux.html)

### Mac OS X

The supported Mac OS X versions are currently

  - Snow Leopard (10.6)
  - Lion (10.7)
  - Mountain Lion (10.8)

for x86 (32 bit) and x86-64 (64 bit) with universal binaries.

For installation instructions and development environment setup
instructions see [Installing on Mac OS
X](Installing%2Bon%2BMac%2BOS%2BX.html)

### Microsoft Windows

The supported Windows versions are

  - Windows XP
  - Windows Vista
  - Windows 7
  - Windows 8

for x86 (32 bit) and x86-64 (64 bit).

Developing applications with the GStreamer SDK is supported with
the following development environments

  - Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 or 2012 (including the free Visual C++
    Express
    edition)

      <http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/visual-studio-overview>

  - MinGW/MSYS

      [http://mingw.org](http://mingw.org/)

For installation instructions and development environment setup
instructions see [Installing on Windows](Installing%2Bon%2BWindows.html)

### Android

The supported Android versions are

  - 2.3 (Gingerbread, API level 9/10)
  - 3.1/3.2 (Honeycomb, API level 12/13)
  - 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwhich, API level 15)
  - 4.1/4.2 (Jelly Bean, API level 16/17)

for ARM.

Developing applications with the GStreamer SDK for Android is supported
from Linux, Mac OS X and Windows systems using the Android SDK and NDK.

For installation instructions and development environment setup
instructions see [Installing for Android
development](Installing%2Bfor%2BAndroid%2Bdevelopment.html).

### iOS

The supported iOS versions are 6.0 and newer for ARM and x86 (iOS
simulator).

Developing applications with the GStreamer SDK for iOS is supported from
Mac OS X only and requires a recent XCode version.

For installation instructions and development environment setup
instructions see [Installing for iOS
development](Installing%2Bfor%2BiOS%2Bdevelopment.html).

## Changes since 2012.11 Brahmaputra

  - Support for iOS platforms
  - Support for Ubuntu 13.04 and Fedora 18
  - Support for Android NDK r8e and newer
  - Update to gcc 4.7.3 and use MSVC lib.exe for generating .lib files
    for the Windows builds
  - The system audio/video codecs on Mac OS X 10.8 can be used from
    GStreamer now
  - Several RTP/RTSP and MPEG TS improvements
  - Fixed audio capture in Windows
  - Improvements and bugfixes to the SDK build process on all platforms
  - Lots of other, smaller bugfixes to GStreamer and other
    software
  - Closed [bugreports](https://bugs.freedesktop.org/buglist.cgi?list_id=310239&resolution=FIXED&chfieldto=2013-06-12&query_format=advanced&chfield=resolution&chfieldfrom=2012-11-28&chfieldvalue=FIXED&bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=VERIFIED&bug_status=CLOSED&product=GStreamer%20SDK)

## Compatibility

The GStreamer SDK Congo is compatible with the 0.10 release series of
GStreamer and fully compatible with GStreamer SDK Amazon and Brahmaputra
Releases.

## Features

The GStreamer SDK Congo is targeted at media playback applications for
desktop and mobile systems. It contains the required components
and plugins for media playback.

  - Local media playback, live streaming, progressive streaming and DVD
    playback
      - Supported video codecs: Theora, VP8, Dirac, MJPEG, JPEG2000,
        h.264\*, h.263\*, MPEG2\*, MPEG4\*, WMV/VC1\*, DV, ...
      - Supported audio codecs: Vorbis, FLAC, Opus, Speex, WavPack,
        AAC\*, MP3\*, WMA\*, Dolby Digital (AC3)\*, DTS/DCA\*, AMR
        NB/WB\*, ...
      - Supported container formats: Ogg, WebM, Matroska, MP4,
        Quicktime, AVI, FLV, 3GPP, WAV, DV, Real Media\*, ASF\*, MPEG
        PS/TS\*, ...
  - Supported protocols: local files, HTTP, Shoutcast/Icecast, HLS,
    RTSP, RTP and MMS\*
  - Application and GUI toolkit integration
  - Automatic container/codecs discovery
  - Metadata extraction
  - Subtitle support
  - Audio visualization
  - On the fly stream switching between different audio/subtitle streams
  - Absolute position seeking, including remote seeking
  - Fast/slow forward/reverse playback and frame stepping
  - Automatic video deinterlacing, scaling and color balance post
    processing
  - Compressed audio passthrough
  - Clutter texture rendering

> \* May require additional licenses from third parties in some
> countries and not installed by default with the GStreamer SDK.
> Properly licensed plugins can be obtained from different companies or
> licenses can be directly obtained from the relevant licensors.

Although this release is targeted at playback applications only it
also contains encoders for some codecs, muxers for some container
formats and some other plugins that are not strictly playback related.
These use-cases are currently not officially supported by the GStreamer
SDK but will usually work and will be officially supported in future
releases of the GStreamer SDK.

The GStreamer SDK Congo contains the following major components, some of
them being optional or not used on some platforms. 

  - GLib 2.36.1
  - GStreamer core and base 0.10.36
  - GStreamer good plugins 0.10.31
  - GStreamer bad plugins 0.10.23
  - GStreamer ugly plugins 0.10.19
  - GStreamer Python bindings 0.10.22\*
  - GTK+ 2.24.11 and Python bindings\*
  - clutter 1.8.4 and clutter-gst 1.6.0\*

> \* Not available on Android and iOS platforms.

## Known Issues

  - Switching between different audio streams can take some time until
    the switch takes effect
  - [Other known
    issues](https://bugs.freedesktop.org/buglist.cgi?resolution=---&resolution=FIXED&query_format=advanced&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=VERIFIED&bug_status=CLOSED&version=2013.6&product=GStreamer%20SDK&list_id=85256)

## Legal Information

### Installer, default installation

The installer (Microsoft Windows) and the default installation
(GNU/Linux) contain and install the minimal default installation. At
install time or later, the downloading of optional components is also
possible, but read on for certain legal cautions you might want to take.
All downloads are from
the [freedesktop.org](http://www.freedesktop.org/) website, for
registered/approved users only.

### Licensing of SDK

GStreamer SDK minimal default installation only contains packages which
are licensed under the GNU LGPL license v.2.1. This license gives you
the Freedom to use, modify, make copies of the software either in the
original or in a modified form, provided that the software you
redistribute is licensed under the same licensing terms. This only
extends to the software itself and modified versions of it, but you are
free to link the LGPL software as a library used by other software under
whichever license. In other words, it is a weak copyleft license.

Therefore, it is possible to use the SDK to build applications that are
then distributed under a different license, including a proprietary one,
provided that reverse engineering is not prohibited for debugging
modifications purposes. Only the pieces of the SDK that are under the
LGPL need to be kept under the LGPL, and the corresponding source code
must be distributed along with the application (or an irrevocable offer
to do so for at least three years from distribution). Please consult
section 6 of the LGPL for further details as to what the corresponding
source code must contain. Some portions of the minimal default
installation may be under different licenses, which are both more
liberal than the LGPL (they are less strict conditions for granting the
license) and compatible with the LGPL. This is advised locally.

### Optional packages

There are two types of optional packages (GPL and Patented), which are
under a different license or have other issues concerning patentability
(or both).

#### GPL code

Part of the optional packages are under the GNU GPL v.2 or v.3. This
means that you cannot link the GPL software in a program unless the same
program is also under the GPL, but you are invited to seek competent
advice on how this works in your precise case and design choices. GPL is
called “strong copyleft” because the condition to distributed under the
same license has the largest possible scope and extends to all
derivative works.

#### Patents

Certain software, and in particular software that implements multimedia
standard formats such as Mp3, MPEG 2 video and audio, h.264, MPEG 4
audio and video, AC3, etc, can have patent issues. In certain countries
patents are granted on software and even software-only solution are by
and large considered patentable and are patented (such as in the United
States). In certain others, patents on pure software solutions are
formally prohibited, but granted (this is the case of Europe), and in
others again are neither allowed nor granted.

It is up to you to make sure that in the countries where the SDK is
used, products are made using it and product are distributed, a license
from the applicable patent holders is required or not. Receiving the SDK
– or links to other downloadable software – does not provide any license
expressed or implied over these patents, except in very limited
conditions where the license so provides. No representation is made.

In certain cases, the optional packages are distributed only as source
code. It is up to the receiver to make sure that in the applicable
circumstances compiling the same code for a given platform or
distributing the object code is not an act that infringes one or more
patents.

### Software is as-is

All software and the entire SDK is provided as-is, without any
warranty whatsoever. The individual licenses have particular language
disclaiming liability: we invite you to read all of them. Should you
need a warranty on the fact that software works as intended or have any
kind of indemnification, you have the option to subscribe a software
maintenance agreement with a company or entity that is in that business.
Fluendo and Collabora, as well as some other companies, provide software
maintenance agreements under certain conditions, you are invited to
contact them in order to receive further details and discuss of the
commercial terms. 

## Contact

Web: [http://www.gstreamer.com](http://www.gstreamer.com/)

Documentation: [http://docs.gstreamer.com](http://docs.gstreamer.com/)

Commercial support: <http://gstreamer.com/contact>

Bug
tracker: <https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=GStreamer%20SDK>