diff --git a/doc/APIchanges b/doc/APIchanges
index d75c977dfb..7a01b80f75 100644
--- a/doc/APIchanges
+++ b/doc/APIchanges
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@ libavutil:     2012-10-22
 
 API changes, most recent first:
 
+2014-02-xx - xxxxxxx - lavf 55.11.0 - avformat.h
+  Add AVFormatContext.max_interleave_delta for controlling amount of buffering
+  when interleaving.
+
 2014-02-02 - xxxxxxx - lavf 55.29.100 - avformat.h
   Add output_ts_offset muxing option to AVFormatContext.
 
diff --git a/libavformat/avformat.h b/libavformat/avformat.h
index fe3757a309..4d3cc1492b 100644
--- a/libavformat/avformat.h
+++ b/libavformat/avformat.h
@@ -1182,6 +1182,24 @@ typedef struct AVFormatContext {
     int debug;
 #define FF_FDEBUG_TS        0x0001
 
+    /**
+     * Maximum buffering duration for interleaving.
+     *
+     * To ensure all the streams are interleaved correctly,
+     * av_interleaved_write_frame() will wait until it has at least one packet
+     * for each stream before actually writing any packets to the output file.
+     * When some streams are "sparse" (i.e. there are large gaps between
+     * successive packets), this can result in excessive buffering.
+     *
+     * This field specifies the maximum difference between the timestamps of the
+     * first and the last packet in the muxing queue, above which libavformat
+     * will output a packet regardless of whether it has queued a packet for all
+     * the streams.
+     *
+     * Muxing only, set by the caller before avformat_write_header().
+     */
+    int64_t max_interleave_delta;
+
     /**
      * Transport stream id.
      * This will be moved into demuxer private options. Thus no API/ABI compatibility
diff --git a/libavformat/mux.c b/libavformat/mux.c
index 71a099f643..0b89406f4e 100644
--- a/libavformat/mux.c
+++ b/libavformat/mux.c
@@ -713,7 +713,6 @@ int ff_interleave_packet_per_dts(AVFormatContext *s, AVPacket *out,
 {
     AVPacketList *pktl;
     int stream_count = 0, noninterleaved_count = 0;
-    int64_t delta_dts_max = 0;
     int i, ret;
 
     if (pkt) {
@@ -730,27 +729,38 @@ int ff_interleave_packet_per_dts(AVFormatContext *s, AVPacket *out,
         }
     }
 
-    if (s->internal->nb_interleaved_streams == stream_count) {
+    if (s->internal->nb_interleaved_streams == stream_count)
         flush = 1;
-    } else if (!flush) {
-        for (i=0; i < s->nb_streams; i++) {
-            if (s->streams[i]->last_in_packet_buffer) {
-                int64_t delta_dts =
-                    av_rescale_q(s->streams[i]->last_in_packet_buffer->pkt.dts,
-                                s->streams[i]->time_base,
-                                AV_TIME_BASE_Q) -
-                    av_rescale_q(s->packet_buffer->pkt.dts,
-                                s->streams[s->packet_buffer->pkt.stream_index]->time_base,
-                                AV_TIME_BASE_Q);
-                delta_dts_max= FFMAX(delta_dts_max, delta_dts);
-            }
+
+    if (s->max_interleave_delta > 0 && s->packet_buffer && !flush) {
+        AVPacket *top_pkt = &s->packet_buffer->pkt;
+        int64_t delta_dts = INT64_MIN;
+        int64_t top_dts = av_rescale_q(top_pkt->dts,
+                                       s->streams[top_pkt->stream_index]->time_base,
+                                       AV_TIME_BASE_Q);
+
+        for (i = 0; i < s->nb_streams; i++) {
+            int64_t last_dts;
+            const AVPacketList *last = s->streams[i]->last_in_packet_buffer;
+
+            if (!last)
+                continue;
+
+            last_dts = av_rescale_q(last->pkt.dts,
+                                    s->streams[i]->time_base,
+                                    AV_TIME_BASE_Q);
+            delta_dts = FFMAX(delta_dts, last_dts - top_dts);
         }
-        if (s->internal->nb_interleaved_streams == stream_count+noninterleaved_count &&
-           delta_dts_max > 20*AV_TIME_BASE) {
-            av_log(s, AV_LOG_DEBUG, "flushing with %d noninterleaved\n", noninterleaved_count);
+
+        if (delta_dts > s->max_interleave_delta) {
+            av_log(s, AV_LOG_DEBUG,
+                   "Delay between the first packet and last packet in the "
+                   "muxing queue is %"PRId64" > %"PRId64": forcing output\n",
+                   delta_dts, s->max_interleave_delta);
             flush = 1;
         }
     }
+
     if (stream_count && flush) {
         AVStream *st;
         pktl = s->packet_buffer;
diff --git a/libavformat/options_table.h b/libavformat/options_table.h
index b42a762738..ca30fd29e3 100644
--- a/libavformat/options_table.h
+++ b/libavformat/options_table.h
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ static const AVOption avformat_options[] = {
 {"flush_packets", "enable flushing of the I/O context after each packet", OFFSET(flush_packets), AV_OPT_TYPE_INT, {.i64 = 1}, 0, 1, E},
 {"metadata_header_padding", "set number of bytes to be written as padding in a metadata header", OFFSET(metadata_header_padding), AV_OPT_TYPE_INT, {.i64 = -1}, -1, INT_MAX, E},
 {"output_ts_offset", "set output timestamp offset", OFFSET(output_ts_offset), AV_OPT_TYPE_DURATION, {.i64 = 0}, -INT64_MAX, INT64_MAX, E},
+{"max_interleave_delta", "maximum buffering duration for interleaving", OFFSET(max_interleave_delta), AV_OPT_TYPE_INT64, { .i64 = 10000000 }, 0, INT64_MAX, E },
 {NULL},
 };
 
diff --git a/libavformat/version.h b/libavformat/version.h
index 7a9aa4d4c7..0fcbe60eaa 100644
--- a/libavformat/version.h
+++ b/libavformat/version.h
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@
 #include "libavutil/version.h"
 
 #define LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MAJOR 55
-#define LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MINOR 29
-#define LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MICRO 101
+#define LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MINOR 30
+#define LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MICRO 100
 
 #define LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_INT AV_VERSION_INT(LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MAJOR, \
                                                LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MINOR, \