[KDE] Which Phonon? Phonon backend - GStreamer or Xine?

[Jaroslav Reznik]

Hi!
We, KDE SIG, are considering which backend should be default for Phonon in 
Fedora. Seems like it's not easy to agree on final decision @ KDE SIG meetings, 
we'd like to summarize what's the problem, some backends facts (please correct 
me, comment, add, etc.) and we'd like to hear comments from outer KDE SIG 
universe, from you, Fedora developers & users, too. 

First question is which Phonon use - there are two actually - one is part of 
Qt, one is part of KDE.

Upstream recommends building/packaging phonon from qt, and building/packaging 
backends separately.

Some backends facts...

GStreamer backend facts:
* now default one in Fedora (F12, rawhide)
* GStreamer is Fedora's default multimedia framework
 - better support from Fedora side? (PA, releases)
* Phonon backend not as mature as Xine one
 - missing functionality
* Maybe more support from upstream developers in the future? [1]
* Nokia is upstream

Xine backend facts:
* default in F10 & F11
* recommended by sandsmark (upstream developer) and Amarok team
* Xine is not as well supported as GStreamer in Fedora
 - but currently nearly bug free 
* KDE is upstream

We prepared test plan but still we don't have any response from our users. For 
some users Xine one works better, for others GStreamer backend works better. 
Seems like it depends on sound HW, ALSA support, PA, engine, backend -> lots 
of possibilities.

So there are two questions:
1. which Phonon
2. which backend
fits better to Fedora...

[1] http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/phonon-backends/2009-September/000304.html

Jaroslav & KDE SIG