FFmpeg/RELEASE

Release Notes
=============

* 0.5 "Bike Shed" March 3, 2009

General notes
-------------

It has been so long since the last release that this should be considered the
first FFmpeg release of recent times. Because of the way things have unfolded to
date, the notes for this version cannot be entirely conventional.

See the Changelog file for a list of significant changes.

Please note that our policy on bug reports has not changed. We still only accept
bug reports against HEAD of the FFmpeg trunk repository. If you are experiencing
any issues with any formally released version of FFmpeg, please try a current
version of the development code to check if the issue still exists. If it does,
make your report against the development code following the usual bug reporting
guidelines.

API notes
---------

In the next release, it is intended to remove a number of deprecated APIs. We
decided to put out a release that includes said APIs for the benefit of third
party software.

As such, this release:
- provides a sync point for said APIs
- increases awareness of API changes
- allows the next release to detail how to transition from the old to the new

The deprecated APIs to be removed are:
- imgconvert (to be replaced by libswscale)
- vhook (to be replaced by libavfilter)

If at all possible, do not use the deprecated APIs. All notes on API changes
should appear in doc/APIchanges.