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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

#101

Post by hvaoc »

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.

Another notion among developers as well is macOS users more likely to pay for software.

I myself have this conflict to built something cross platform but then you don’t get well polished out of the box.

What do you folks think about this?

Any success with non macOS non tech savvy users buying your software as much as macOS users?

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

#102

Post by wtallis »

andsoitis wrote: post #98
joshstrange wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no consistency at all between electron apps. No, there is not but there is consistency between platforms of the same electron app. Something that's much harder to do if you write a native app.

The reality is that for most people, they use an app on a sibgle platform (typical end users don’t constantly switch between Windows, Linux, and macOS) so that consistency does not primarily benefit the end-user.

Exactly. The consistency being extolled here is not from the perspective of the users but of the marketing department that wants to warp basic UI conventions in service of making their branding a more pervasive part of the user experience. Users basically never want you to give them an app where even the buttons and scroll bars are changed to comply with your corporate style guide.

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

#103

Post by datagram »

Solvency wrote: post #65
cjk2 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because the user interface is actually consistent and normalised across the whole platform and the paradigms are well documented and understood by the developers producing software. On Windows and Linux one minute you're constantly poked in the eye by fucked up scaling issues, different toolkit weirdness and quirks, various layers of abandoned shit going back 25 years and people with the design ability of a thre…

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.

There is LosslessCut[1], though it's only designed to handle trimming and not general re-encoding.

[1]: https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut

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

#105

Post by giantrobot »

zoobab wrote: post #13
fancythat wrote: post #12

Just interested, how do you manage licensing tarpits around certain video codecs supported by ffmpeg?

"licensing tarpits" patent trolls?

Various codecs ffmpeg supports have legitimate patent licenses. I can't think of any of the patent pools with NPEs, actual patent trolls.

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

#106

Post by altcognito »

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.

It is a single screen with about 5 input boxes and a drag and drop interface.

Probably a bit of hyperbole to put this into a category of "best looking software"

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

#107

Post by gmiwakura »

jwells89 wrote: post #81
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.

In my experience, producing a polished Electron/web app takes substantially more effort than it does to produce an AppKit/UIKit equivalent. Those don’t get you multiplatform, but that’s why a lot of devs who care about these things only publish for macOS and iOS.

[flagged]

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

#108

Post by talldayo »

wtallis wrote: post #102
andsoitis wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that for most people, they use an app on a sibgle platform (typical end users don’t constantly switch between Windows, Linux, and macOS) so that consistency does not primarily benefit the end-user.

Exactly. The consistency being extolled here is not from the perspective of the users but of the marketing department that wants to warp basic UI conventions in service of making their branding a more pervasive part of the user experience. Users basically never want you to give them an app where even the buttons and scroll bars are changed to comply with your corporate style guide.

On the other hand, if Google Docs had system-native controls for every useragent that could connect to it, nobody would have any clue how to do anything and search for a new online document editor. It's not the overwhelming love for Material design that makes Google Docs look non-native, it's the experiential consistency for enterprise customers and less computer-obsessed end-users. If that amounts to sacrificing usability for branding, then Apple is just as guilty. Design is just part of building a product, and prioritizing your specific OS is not a realistic expectation from cross-platform products.

And for professionals, I don't even wager this consideration takes place at all. I don't see anyone protesting Ableton Live or Pro Tools because their developers didn't use the native MacOS button widget.

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

#109

Post by saagarjha »

talldayo wrote: post #108
wtallis wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. The consistency being extolled here is not from the perspective of the users but of the marketing department that wants to warp basic UI conventions in service of making their branding a more pervasive part of the user experience. Users basically never want you to give them an app where even the buttons and scroll bars are changed to comply with your corporate style guide.

On the other hand, if Google Docs had system-native controls for every useragent that could connect to it, nobody would have any clue how to do anything and search for a new online document editor. It's not the overwhelming love for Material design that makes Google Docs look non-native, it's the experiential consistency for enterprise customers and less computer-obsessed end-users. If that amounts to sacrificing usa…

People are more than happy to use Microsoft Office…?

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

#110

Post by saagarjha »

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.

That’s not the complaint lol
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