diff --git a/ffmpeg.c b/ffmpeg.c
index bdd7f3ef54..9b99786431 100644
--- a/ffmpeg.c
+++ b/ffmpeg.c
@@ -103,6 +103,9 @@ typedef struct AVMetaDataMap {
 static const OptionDef options[];
 
 #define MAX_FILES 100
+#if !FF_API_MAX_STREAMS
+#define MAX_STREAMS 1024    /* arbitrary sanity check value */
+#endif
 
 static const char *last_asked_format = NULL;
 static AVFormatContext *input_files[MAX_FILES];