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Show HN: CompressX, my FFmpeg wrapper for macOS

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Re: Show HN: CompressX, my FFmpeg wrapper for macOS

#71

Post by Citizen_Lame »

nexuist wrote: post #62
ta1243 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes that's exactly right, the extremely complex and clever code in ffmpeg that's understood by about 12 people in the world and is the basis for the entire media consumption in the world isn't where the value is, some gui frontend is. Do you work for microsoft?

Right, the value add should obviously remain locked in the hands of a few elite professionals and the rest of the world should have to beg and grovel at their feet to get anything done. Any attempts to simplify workflows should be looked at with scorn and an aura of arrogance. Do you work at Oracle?

You can craft script for ffmpeg using any of the AI chat providers, even a badger can do it. UI is nice, but we have handbrake already.

Do you work for local government?

Re: Show HN: CompressX, my FFmpeg wrapper for macOS

#72

Post by alwayslikethis »

greggsy wrote: post #69
Solvency wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but anyone can create an electron app these days with total control over the UI polish with way less effort. in fact electron seems like the perfect use case here for a ffmpeg UI wrapper. surprised no one has done it.

People rage about Electron being insecure and bloated, but by Jove it’s a godsend for consistency and portability.

Electron and consistency?? I get Electron being easier to develop for, but it achieves portability by ignoring platform native UI guidelines. There is no consistency at all between electron apps.

Re: Show HN: CompressX, my FFmpeg wrapper for macOS

#73

Post by encom »

jjice wrote: post #23

I swear the best looking software like this is all built for MacOS. Maybe there's a lot of it on Windows as well, but I don't see a ton of it on HN (maybe just the demo?). Is the ecosystem part of this? Is it that the application demographic leans towards MacOS? Is the dev and monetization experience better? I'm really curious if anyone know why I see so much good native indie software for MacOS specifically.

Apple users are probably the only crowd that would pay money for a simplistic ffmpeg frontend.

Re: Show HN: CompressX, my FFmpeg wrapper for macOS

#74

Post by greggsy »

DistractionRect wrote: post #63
ta1243 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes that's exactly right, the extremely complex and clever code in ffmpeg that's understood by about 12 people in the world and is the basis for the entire media consumption in the world isn't where the value is, some gui frontend is. Do you work for microsoft?

I agree with the GP here. Yes, you can do all this with just FFMPEG, but now you have to wade through all the docs, flags, values to craft your CLI args with a bit of trial and error. The value add here is a coherent front-end that abstracts away all the complexity and lets you cut right to what you want. Further, if it's something you do infrequently, or your workflow changes, you have to rerun the gaunlet of figuri…

I had to transcode some files recently. I’m extremely proficient with the ClI, but I would have loved to have a GUI version.

Re: Show HN: CompressX, my FFmpeg wrapper for macOS

#75

Post by alwayslikethis »

ta1243 wrote: post #58
ghusto wrote: post #45

You're being modest in describing it as an FFmpeg "wrapper". Although technically true, I can see a lot of thought and effort went into the UX, and I think that's where the value lies. Good job!

Yes that's exactly right, the extremely complex and clever code in ffmpeg that's understood by about 12 people in the world and is the basis for the entire media consumption in the world isn't where the value is, some gui frontend is. Do you work for microsoft?

I don't think ffmpeg is actually _extremely_ complex. A lot of the complexity (all the flags) you feel belonging to ffmpeg actually belongs to encoders (libx264, libx265, aomenc, libvpx, all the hardware encoders from each vendor). They each have various options meaning different things. ffmpeg is just an interface for them.

Re: Show HN: CompressX, my FFmpeg wrapper for macOS

#76

Post by dotinvoke »

cjk2 wrote: post #67
Solvency wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but anyone can create an electron app these days with total control over the UI polish with way less effort. in fact electron seems like the perfect use case here for a ffmpeg UI wrapper. surprised no one has done it.

Electron serves the developer not the user. It also looks shit on every platform then. And eats all your RAM

The complaint that Chrome eats all your RAM is because it starts a new process for each tab, with all the overhead that entails. You’re not using multiple tabs in an Electron app.

Re: Show HN: CompressX, my FFmpeg wrapper for macOS

#78

Post by cjk2 »

dotinvoke wrote: post #76
cjk2 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electron serves the developer not the user. It also looks shit on every platform then. And eats all your RAM

The complaint that Chrome eats all your RAM is because it starts a new process for each tab, with all the overhead that entails. You’re not using multiple tabs in an Electron app.

No instead I run 50 standalone browsers with one tab each on my machine ...

Re: Show HN: CompressX, my FFmpeg wrapper for macOS

#79

Post by alwayslikethis »

encom wrote: post #73
jjice wrote: post #23

I swear the best looking software like this is all built for MacOS. Maybe there's a lot of it on Windows as well, but I don't see a ton of it on HN (maybe just the demo?). Is the ecosystem part of this? Is it that the application demographic leans towards MacOS? Is the dev and monetization experience better? I'm really curious if anyone know why I see so much good native indie software for MacOS specifically.

Apple users are probably the only crowd that would pay money for a simplistic ffmpeg frontend.

Yeah. From the first glance I see a lot of missing details being glossed over. Like what encoder is being used? Output format "mp4" is a container format, so is webm. Knowing the codec is important to decide whether the file is appropriate for where I want to play it. What if my TV doesn't have HEVC support and you are using it inadvertently? Also, what does each quality setting mean? Or the tradeoff between CPU usage and efficiency? Asking ChatGPT to come up with an ffmpeg command has none of these problems as all the details are exposed to you.

Re: Show HN: CompressX, my FFmpeg wrapper for macOS

#80

Post by duskwuff »

alwayslikethis wrote: post #75
ta1243 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes that's exactly right, the extremely complex and clever code in ffmpeg that's understood by about 12 people in the world and is the basis for the entire media consumption in the world isn't where the value is, some gui frontend is. Do you work for microsoft?

I don't think ffmpeg is actually _extremely_ complex. A lot of the complexity (all the flags) you feel belonging to ffmpeg actually belongs to encoders (libx264, libx265, aomenc, libvpx, all the hardware encoders from each vendor). They each have various options meaning different things. ffmpeg is just an interface for them.

And it's a genuinely complex problem space. ffmpeg supports some pretty wild audio/video transformations, especially once you start getting into filter graphs (e.g. combining multiple audio/video streams into a single output); its command-line interface reflects that complexity.
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