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15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

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Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#81

Post by noonespecial »

naasking wrote: post #67
noonespecial wrote: post #35

A client once gave me a lecture about how FOSS couldn't possibly produce software with the quality of commercial and was really just a parasitic element on software development. He pulled up a video talk by some "expert" on the topic. Oh yes, he used VLC. Thanks for the classic "umm.. you know..." moment VLC project.

> FOSS [...] was really just a parasitic element on software development. That's a weird claim. It's not like FOSS is taking tax money or forcing people to pay for something they don't use. How else could it possibly be parasitic?

It was a long convoluted argument. It went something like, "if all of those communists hadn't just made all that stuff for free then lots more people would have jobs building it". Also it all violated patents and was inherently inferior (but by its dastardly and audacious existence, prevented the better commercial stuff from being made). As well as costing the jobs. ???

It was about as coherent as cooked spaghetti.

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#82

Post by markild »

NeutronBoy wrote: post #8
dopeboy wrote: post #3

In the earlier days of mainstream desktop linux (~2005), video codecs were a complete shitshow. VLC was a godsend during those times - it just worked. Still the first thing I apt-get after a fresh install. If you're reading this team VLC, thank you for your work. Ways to contribute to VLC: http://www.videolan.org/contribute.html

Even until the last few years on Windows, codecs were a shit show. You could download codec packs, but it was pretty hit and miss. VLC was amazing - it would open everything, audio just worked, and subtitles just worked.

Yeah. And ending up playing a game of "useful or malware"

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#83

Post by gioele »

rossy wrote: post #18
SwellJoe wrote: post #11

I briefly operated an audiovisual services company (that lost a tremendous amount of money, but that had nothing to do with VLC), and after trying loads of players, came back to VLC. It allowed all of the stuff I needed and that many other players (including expensive commercial ones) failed at. It plays literally everything . We regularly had sponsors show up the day of the show and hand me a USB drive with their ad…

In general, it seems like FOSS multimedia software blows proprietary software out of the water with regards to format support, and that proprietary software works at a disadvantage, because for them, adding support for a new format means navigating a patent minefield and paying licence fees, but for FOSS, supporting every format is as simple as including FFmpeg.

I have a theory that I call "just one small fix". I think FOSS media players can handle more video files (not just formats) because most of the times the errors that makes them unplayable are just small mistakes in the way things are encoded.

Does a certain camera produces only even timestamps? Let's check for that fix it, it is "just one small fix: one if and a division". Is that MPEG encoded with swapped croma? Let's detect it and fix it, it is "just ome small fix: one if and a swap".

Over the time FOSS projects accumulate all these fixes and one day you realize that they can read practically everything as if a single person sat down and wrote that super-robust code in one go. Proprietary software cannot benefit from this kind of drive-by contributions.

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#84

Post by cdr »

deciplex wrote: post #78
NeutronBoy wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even until the last few years on Windows, codecs were a shit show. You could download codec packs, but it was pretty hit and miss. VLC was amazing - it would open everything, audio just worked, and subtitles just worked.

CCCP has worked great for me on Windows for the last 10+ years.

CCCP was amazing when it first came about. The last time I wanted to watch something, though, KCP was recommended over CCCP. Things are forever going to be a bit of a mess with playing anime since there's a long tradition of being on the bleeding edge of encoding.

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#85

Post by Bouncingsoul1 »

gioele wrote: post #83
rossy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general, it seems like FOSS multimedia software blows proprietary software out of the water with regards to format support, and that proprietary software works at a disadvantage, because for them, adding support for a new format means navigating a patent minefield and paying licence fees, but for FOSS, supporting every format is as simple as including FFmpeg.

I have a theory that I call "just one small fix". I think FOSS media players can handle more video files (not just formats) because most of the times the errors that makes them unplayable are just small mistakes in the way things are encoded. Does a certain camera produces only even timestamps? Let's check for that fix it, it is "just one small fix: one if and a division". Is that MPEG encoded with swapped croma? Let…

One "if" here a "dirty bool flag" there and sooner or later your code is unmaintainable, I think OpenSource + Review prevents this kind of code.

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#86

Post by PhasmaFelis »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #76
wlesieutre wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a related note, VLC's traffic cone icon comes from a club member drunkenly stealing one, which then ballooned into the organization collecting them and eventually inspired the icon. https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=9792

Interesting. It’s a terrible, stupid, confusing symbol for this project. [edit] if the point is to be cryptic and appealing to nerds, it succeeds in spades [/edit]

Enh, I mean, it's not a good logo in the sense of clearly signposting what it signifies, but at this point in the development of the internet, I don't think there are any good logos left. All the clear icons for "audio/video player" have been used a dozen times over. All that's left for any project now is to pick something random, but distinctive. VLC's traffic cone manages that, at least.

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#87

Post by jbk »

miahi wrote: post #75
jbk wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please share them with us :)

Codec not supported: VLC could not decode the format "CFHD" (No description for this codec)

This codec was RE'd 2 weeks ago and was merged in FFmpeg and libavcodec this weekend, by a member of the VideoLAN non-profit organization. Expect it in VLC soon.

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#88

Post by jbk »

rlv-dan wrote: post #69
jbk wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very decorelated. libVLC is used in Android, iOS, WinRT, Tizen ports of VLC. You can build any UI you want about the library. Moreover, we're working on a new UI, right now.

My wish: A faster way to toggle the most used filters, especially the sharpen filter.

Ok. What other filter?

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#89

Post by notalaser »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #76
wlesieutre wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a related note, VLC's traffic cone icon comes from a club member drunkenly stealing one, which then ballooned into the organization collecting them and eventually inspired the icon. https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=9792

Interesting. It’s a terrible, stupid, confusing symbol for this project. [edit] if the point is to be cryptic and appealing to nerds, it succeeds in spades [/edit]

It's almost as if actually being good at what it's supposed to do were essential for a computer program.
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