matplotlib/matplotlib — pull request #1536 by jakevdp (2012-11-27 00:08:26+00:00)
Title: ENH: add AVConv movie writer for animations

This PR creates a separate ``MovieWriter`` interface for avconv. AVConv is a fork that has diverged from ffmpeg and been renamed, though retains a very similar interface.

Technically users could probably just set ``ffmpeg_path`` to ``'avconv'`` in the rc file (the interface for the two is nearly identical), but I think this solution is cleaner and less confusing for the user. It will also by default find avconv on systems where ffmpeg is unavailable.