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Show HN: Ez FFmpeg – Video editing in plain English

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Re: Show HN: Ez FFmpeg – Video editing in plain English

#61

Post by skydhash »

eviks wrote: post #23
my_brain_saying wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why we have fish tab completions. Does exactly that; list of possible commands with contextual help. Fish rules.

Yeah, no, that's a pale imitation that only addresses the one specific example given. But, like, how would you even know what target formats are supported? Break the flow and look it up or simply read the drop-down list? The free type-any-text interface with poor helpers is the worst in accessibility Which format is the default if no argument is given? Or more complicated contextual knowledge - if you cut 1sec of a v…

Which flow is being broken here? Especially when the information is easily accessible with `man`.

Re: Show HN: Ez FFmpeg – Video editing in plain English

#62

Post by eviks »

skydhash wrote: post #61
eviks wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, no, that's a pale imitation that only addresses the one specific example given. But, like, how would you even know what target formats are supported? Break the flow and look it up or simply read the drop-down list? The free type-any-text interface with poor helpers is the worst in accessibility Which format is the default if no argument is given? Or more complicated contextual knowledge - if you cut 1sec of a v…

Which flow is being broken here? Especially when the information is easily accessible with `man`.

the flow that doesn't require you to open a different tab or cancel a command to `man` your way through dozens of poorly searchable pages of documentation, but allows you to continue translating what you want in your mind into the interface command with delay potentially subsecond interrupts

Re: Show HN: Ez FFmpeg – Video editing in plain English

#63

Post by Forgeties79 »

qbow883 wrote: post #57

Days since last ffmpeg CLI wrapper: 0 It's incredible what lengths people go to to avoid memorizing basic ffmpeg usage. It's really not that hard, and the (F.) manual explains the basic concepts fairly well. Now, granted, ffmpeg's defaults (reencoding by default and only keeping one stream of each type unless otherwise specified) aren't great, which can create some footguns, but as long as you remember to pass `-c co…

Some people just want to use an intuitive tool with better QoL, even if it leads to compromises, to do a job swiftly without going over documentation/learning a ton of new things. Not everything has to be an educational experience. ffmpeg exists in its original form like you prefer, but some folks want to use lossless cut. Nothing wrong with that IMO.

Personally I think it’s great that it’s such a universally useful tool that it has been deployed in so many different variations.

Re: Show HN: Ez FFmpeg – Video editing in plain English

#64

Post by [deleted] »

eviks wrote: post #23
my_brain_saying wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why we have fish tab completions. Does exactly that; list of possible commands with contextual help. Fish rules.

Yeah, no, that's a pale imitation that only addresses the one specific example given. But, like, how would you even know what target formats are supported? Break the flow and look it up or simply read the drop-down list? The free type-any-text interface with poor helpers is the worst in accessibility Which format is the default if no argument is given? Or more complicated contextual knowledge - if you cut 1sec of a v…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Ez FFmpeg – Video editing in plain English

#65

Post by hnarn »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #63
qbow883 wrote: post #57

Days since last ffmpeg CLI wrapper: 0 It's incredible what lengths people go to to avoid memorizing basic ffmpeg usage. It's really not that hard, and the (F.) manual explains the basic concepts fairly well. Now, granted, ffmpeg's defaults (reencoding by default and only keeping one stream of each type unless otherwise specified) aren't great, which can create some footguns, but as long as you remember to pass `-c co…

Some people just want to use an intuitive tool with better QoL, even if it leads to compromises, to do a job swiftly without going over documentation/learning a ton of new things. Not everything has to be an educational experience. ffmpeg exists in its original form like you prefer, but some folks want to use lossless cut. Nothing wrong with that IMO. Personally I think it’s great that it’s such a universally useful…

> Some people just want to use a tool to do a job swiftly. Not everything has to be educational.

> some folks want to use lossless cut

In that case I would encourage you to ruminate on what the following in the post you're replying to means and what the implications are:

> "ff convert video.mkv to mp4" (an extremely common usecase) maps to `ffmpeg -i video.mkv -y video.mp4` here, which does a full reencode (losing quality and wasting time) for what can usually just be a simple remux

Depending on the size of the video, the time it would take you to "do the job swiftly" (i.e. not caring about how the tools you are using actually work) might be more than just reading the ffmpeg manual, or at the very least searching for some command examples.

Re: Show HN: Ez FFmpeg – Video editing in plain English

#67

Post by qbow883 »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #63
qbow883 wrote: post #57

Days since last ffmpeg CLI wrapper: 0 It's incredible what lengths people go to to avoid memorizing basic ffmpeg usage. It's really not that hard, and the (F.) manual explains the basic concepts fairly well. Now, granted, ffmpeg's defaults (reencoding by default and only keeping one stream of each type unless otherwise specified) aren't great, which can create some footguns, but as long as you remember to pass `-c co…

Some people just want to use an intuitive tool with better QoL, even if it leads to compromises, to do a job swiftly without going over documentation/learning a ton of new things. Not everything has to be an educational experience. ffmpeg exists in its original form like you prefer, but some folks want to use lossless cut. Nothing wrong with that IMO. Personally I think it’s great that it’s such a universally useful…

Yes, I am not opposed to ffmpeg wrappers in and of themselves. Some decent ffmpeg wrappers definitely exist. But I argue in my comment above that this specific tool does not have better QoL - again, since it reencodes unconditionally with quality settings that are usually not configurable.

Re: Show HN: Ez FFmpeg – Video editing in plain English

#68

Post by gcanyon »

I can only speak to my experience, but I spent a long time being puzzled by video editor user interfaces, until I ran into ScreenFlow about ten years ago. For whatever reason, the UI clicked, and I've used it ever since. It's a single purchase, not monthly, and relatively affordable. https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm

Re: Show HN: Ez FFmpeg – Video editing in plain English

#69

Post by skydhash »

eviks wrote: post #62
skydhash wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which flow is being broken here? Especially when the information is easily accessible with `man`.

the flow that doesn't require you to open a different tab or cancel a command to `man` your way through dozens of poorly searchable pages of documentation, but allows you to continue translating what you want in your mind into the interface command with delay potentially subsecond interrupts

Is there kind of rewards for speed running typing ffmpeg flags? Like an advent of ffmpeg?

I know what I want to do, I don't know how it's being done, but there's a wealth of information that is very accessible. So I just read it.

It's very easy to type `apropos ffmpeg`. And even if you typed `man ffmpeg`, if you go to the end, you will find related manuals name for more information. And you can always use the pager (`less` in most case) facility for quick search.

I believe that a lot of frustration comes from people unwilling to learn the conceptual basis of the tools they are using.

Re: Show HN: Ez FFmpeg – Video editing in plain English

#70

Post by eviks »

skydhash wrote: post #69
eviks wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the flow that doesn't require you to open a different tab or cancel a command to `man` your way through dozens of poorly searchable pages of documentation, but allows you to continue translating what you want in your mind into the interface command with delay potentially subsecond interrupts

Is there kind of rewards for speed running typing ffmpeg flags? Like an advent of ffmpeg? I know what I want to do, I don't know how it's being done, but there's a wealth of information that is very accessible. So I just read it. It's very easy to type `apropos ffmpeg`. And even if you typed `man ffmpeg`, if you go to the end, you will find related manuals name for more information. And you can always use the pager (…

What's the reward for trivializing real issues and coming up with broken "solutions"?

> It's very easy to type `apropos ffmpeg`

No it's not. First, that's not a Windows command, so right off the bat you've cut off the largest OS. Second, your command is naively empty and it's telling that you've given it instead of an actual search query because you wouldn't be able to come up with a great one right away that would result in the correct result at the top - while the correct resuls is "hardcoded" in the field type in the UI. So yeah, go on, find that perfect query and then explain why you think every single user should be able to do the same quickly. Then you can think about how justified your other beliefs are about basic workflow issues you don't understand

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