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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

#91

Post by skydhash »

eviks wrote: post #70
skydhash wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 r…

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

Then any solutions is broken in this way. Even my bluetooth speaker comes with a manual. Not reading it and saying the speaker is broken, because you can't figure how to connect is pure delusion. Same as not reading ffmpeg manual and expecting to know how to use it.

> First, that's not a Windows command, so right off the bat you've cut off the largest OS.

ffmpeg on Window is so far the beaten path that it may as well be in Mordor. I would gladly bet that someone that knows how to run ffmpeg on windows also knows how to find the documentation for it.

> So yeah, go on, find that perfect query

Why would I find the perfect query? Do you go in the library and then find the correct line of the correct book in one go? Or do you consult the list of books of books for a theme, select a few candidates, consult their index, and then read the pages?

Then all of that is left to do is to note down the reference if you need to consult the book again (no need to remember everything).

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

#93

Post by Forgeties79 »

qbow883 wrote: post #67
Forgeties79 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

Not really sure how else I was supposed to interpret your comment but clarification taken.

> But I argue in my comment above that this specific tool does not have better QoL

For some folks it may be better/more intuitive. It doesn’t hurt anybody by existing.

We all compromise with different tools in our lives in different ways. It just reads to me like an odd axe to grind.

Simply put: What is so bad about the existence of this project?

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

#94

Post by andrepd »

corobo wrote: post #31
HelloUsername wrote: post #2

The one good usecase I've found for AI chatbots, is writing ffmpeg commands. You can just keep chatting with it until you have the command you need. Some of them I save as an executable .command, or in my .txt note.

LLMs are an amazing advance in natural language parsing. The problem is someone decided that and the contents of Wikipedia was all something needs to be intelligent haha

And reddit, that bastion of human achievement.

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

#95

Post by beepbooptheory »

chpatrick wrote: post #32
beepbooptheory wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But doesnt something like this interface kind of show the inefficiency of this? Like we can all agree ffmpeg is somewhat esoteric and LLMs are probably really great at it, but at the end of the day if you can get 90% of what you need with just some good porcelain, why waste the energy spinning up the GPU?

Because FFmpeg is a swiss army knife with a million blades and I don't think any easy interface is really going to do the job well. It's a great LLM use case.

I know everybody uses a subscription for these things, but doesn't it at least feel expensive to use an LLM like this? Like turning on the oven to heat up a single slice of pizza.

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

#96

Post by skydhash »

ben_w wrote: post #75
skydhash wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t because I trust the process to get the artifacts. Why? Because it’s easy to replicate and verify. Just like how proof works in math. You can’t verify LLM’s output. And thus, any form of trust is faith, not rational logic.

I don't install 3rd party dependencies if I can avoid them. Why? Because although someone could have verified them, there's no guarantee that anybody actually did, and this difference has been exploited by attackers often enough to get its own name, a "supply-chain attack". With an LLM’s output, it is short enough that I can* put in the effort to make sure it's not obliviously malicious. Then I save the output as an…

> Because although someone could have verified them, there's no guarantee that anybody actually did

In the case of npm and the like, I don't trust them because they are actually using insecure procedures, which is proven to be so. And the vectors of attacks are well known. But I do trust Debian and the binaries they provide as the risks are for the Debian infrastructure to be compromised, malicious code in in the original source, and cryptographic failures. All threes are possibles, but there's more risk of bodily harm to myself that them happening.

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

#97

Post by fleroviumna »

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…

[dead]

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

#98

Post by NooneAtAll3 »

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`.

"why would one solve the problem with one drop-down menu if you can solve it with 20 minutes of browsing walls of text"

lol

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

#99

Post by Workaccount2 »

The total upheaval of the current computing paradigm that AI will bring, if nothing else, is

"Hey computer, can you convert that funny kitchen cooking scene in this movie to a .gif I can share online?"

You're wasting your time on a dead man walking paradigm doing anything else. "Plain English" actually means plain English now.

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

#100

Post by qbow883 »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #93
qbow883 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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. Not really sure how else I was supposed to interpret your comment but clarification taken. > But I argue in my comment above that this specific tool does not have better QoL For some folks it may be better/mor…

> Not really sure how else I was supposed to interpret your comment

Yes, that was a bit facetious of me, I apologize for that.

> What is so bad about the existence of this project?

Being very blunt: The fact that it reinforces the extremely common misconception that a) converting between containers like mkv and mp4 will always require reencoding and that b) there is a single way to reencode a video (hence suggesting that there is no "bad" way to reencode a video), seeing as next to no encoding settings are exposed.

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