FFmpeg update to 9.0

[andrefmsilva]

Maybe is time to start planing FFmpeg update to recent newer release.

[superuser404notfound]

Thanks for the nudge. This build is pinned to n8.1.2, and 9.0.1 was checked against it. The short version: the update is mechanically cheap, but it currently buys this build nothing, so it is deferred rather than dropped.

What was measured against n9.0.1:

• All four FFmpeg source patches in build.sh apply unchanged (yadif_videotoolbox autorelease balance, pgssubdec missing-palette recovery, the visionOS OpenGL ES buffer attribute, and the matroska TrackTimestampScale warning). None of them has landed upstream, so all four are still needed.
• The public API delta is small. 35 symbols were removed between n8.1.2 and n9.0.1, and the consumer (AetherEngine) uses none of them. Struct field removals are not covered by a symbol diff, so a real compile remains the actual proof.
• Every component enabled here (decoders, demuxers, parsers, bitstream filters, filters, muxers, protocols) still exists in 9.0.1.
• All sonames bump: lavc and lavf 62 to 63, lavu 60 to 61, lavfi 11 to 12, lsws 9 to 10, lswr 6 to 7. So the move would be a major version of this package.

Why not right now:

• Nothing in 9.0 changes decode behaviour for the component set this build ships. The one genuinely interesting addition is the new dovi_split bitstream filter for multi-layer Dolby Vision HEVC, and that is a feature of its own rather than a reason to move the pin.
• release/8.1 is still maintained upstream (40 commits since n8.1.2, most recent on 2026-08-03), so staying there is not a security or bugfix backlog.
• A batch of reporter retests is currently in flight against the AetherEngine releases that consume this package. Moving to a new FFmpeg major underneath them would give every failed retest a second possible cause.

Plan: take n8.1.3 as a cheap intermediate step when it appears, then move to a 9.0.x once that retest batch has drained. This issue stays open as the tracker and will get an update when the pin moves.