While I have previously shied away from using imageio-ffmpeg as the
default version because the included version is 4 years old and
specifically does not work with the av1 format, there have been specific
issues from people with a system version of ffmpeg that is even older.
There has been a longstanding desire to create a system for determining
the best version of ffmpeg, but this has proved a reasonably involved
task. Some version information uses git commit hashes instead of a
potentially sortable semvar and there are a large number of compile time
flags that could result in a newer binary having less functionality.
Thus a sysstem has been added that parses compile flags for desired
encoders as well as the copyright year to determine which ffmpeg version
is more feature full.
Austin Mroz
75fc10e0ff