diff --git a/doc/APIchanges b/doc/APIchanges
index e4bd6d8077..6b9efd01c0 100644
--- a/doc/APIchanges
+++ b/doc/APIchanges
@@ -13,6 +13,10 @@ libavutil:     2013-12-xx
 
 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.
+
 2014-01-xx - xxxxxxx - lavc 55.32.1 - avcodec.h
   Edges are not required anymore on video buffers allocated by get_buffer2()
   (i.e. as if the CODEC_FLAG_EMU_EDGE flag was always on). Deprecate
diff --git a/libavformat/avformat.h b/libavformat/avformat.h
index 00380d7b6c..ab09efd4bb 100644
--- a/libavformat/avformat.h
+++ b/libavformat/avformat.h
@@ -1002,6 +1002,25 @@ 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;
+
     /*****************************************************************
      * All fields below this line are not part of the public API. They
      * may not be used outside of libavformat and can be changed and
diff --git a/libavformat/mux.c b/libavformat/mux.c
index 06dacead8f..c16d1c83a5 100644
--- a/libavformat/mux.c
+++ b/libavformat/mux.c
@@ -541,8 +541,39 @@ int ff_interleave_packet_per_dts(AVFormatContext *s, AVPacket *out,
         ff_interleave_add_packet(s, pkt, interleave_compare_dts);
     }
 
-    for (i = 0; i < s->nb_streams; i++)
-        stream_count += !!s->streams[i]->last_in_packet_buffer;
+    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);
+            stream_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;
+        }
+    } else {
+        for (i = 0; i < s->nb_streams; i++)
+            stream_count += !!s->streams[i]->last_in_packet_buffer;
+    }
+
 
     if (stream_count && (s->internal->nb_interleaved_streams == stream_count || flush)) {
         pktl = s->packet_buffer;
diff --git a/libavformat/options_table.h b/libavformat/options_table.h
index 54bf25fc27..cc84e1c02f 100644
--- a/libavformat/options_table.h
+++ b/libavformat/options_table.h
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ static const AVOption avformat_options[] = {
 {"bitstream", "detect bitstream specification deviations", 0, AV_OPT_TYPE_CONST, {.i64 = AV_EF_BITSTREAM }, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, D, "err_detect"},
 {"buffer", "detect improper bitstream length", 0, AV_OPT_TYPE_CONST, {.i64 = AV_EF_BUFFER }, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, D, "err_detect"},
 {"explode", "abort decoding on minor error detection", 0, AV_OPT_TYPE_CONST, {.i64 = AV_EF_EXPLODE }, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, D, "err_detect"},
+{"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 dbdccb4cdc..3b96d0a976 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 10
-#define LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MICRO  3
+#define LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MINOR 11
+#define LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MICRO  0
 
 #define LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_INT AV_VERSION_INT(LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MAJOR, \
                                                LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MINOR, \