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Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player

mpv.io

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Re: Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player

#361

Post by GuB-42 »

wrasee wrote: post #335
marcus_holmes wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's an open-source project, not commercial software. In your job, you have to special-case some things because the alternative is not delivering what the boss wants. Regardless of the problems this may cause, or how much tech debt it generates - those are (in the end) business decisions, and while you can make a case to the boss that implementing the special case feature is going to cause huge problems, it's…

But he didn't "just" say no: > If it's so easy, why are you not doing it? Talk is cheap. > I'll be waiting for your patch. Surely you're not as lazy and incompetent as the existing volunteer developers. I'd say that is pretty toxic. Specifically, that is no way to talk about other volunteer developers that contribute their time. It is precisely the kind of language that keeps people away from contributing to open sou…

This is taken out of context. He actually respects contributors, including their decision to not implement reverse play.

The meaning here is "if you think the existing contributors are as incompetent and lazy as you are implying, then do better".

I think he got caught up in the argument and that he should have just put the question in a FAQ entry and lock the thread before people start mentioning nazis.

Re: Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player

#363

Post by throwaway11747 »

romanows wrote: post #202
lairv wrote: post #69

I use it to inspect video frames by frames, particularly being able to go back one frame. VLC doesn't support it, this thread about the feature is hilarious https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=120627

I was hoping that mpv would work a bit better than vlc for sending video to chromecast, but unfortunately, another similarly amusing thread: https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/issues/177

It's a former developer that's no longer affiliated with the project since 2021 or thereabouts. They did not part on good terms because he behaved in the same way towards other mpv developers, "my way or the highway".

So you probably shouldn't let anything that old sour your opinion on the current mpv.

(I don't belong to either side, just have been using the player since its inception.)

Re: Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player

#364

Post by throwaway11747 »

latexr wrote: post #294
romanows wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was hoping that mpv would work a bit better than vlc for sending video to chromecast, but unfortunately, another similarly amusing thread: https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/issues/177

Far from me to defend the whole mpv team[1], but the dev in that thread is a ghost (deleted user). I remember them, they were always rude and eventually got kicked out of the project and loudly complained about “being removed from the project [they] created”. I never found the exact reason why, though I can’t help but think the attitude had something to do with it. [1] Some are quite nice and competent. Others are ex…

The last issue that caused them to leave was their desire to move mpv to their own build system, which they believed they could write in a weekend. Other mpv developers thought that was a stupid idea and argued in favor of something more standard, such as meson. That was the last straw for both sides.

Re: Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player

#365

Post by latexr »

opan wrote: post #322
latexr wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I even use it when an image I saved ends up as .html for some reason and then use the info screen to determine the real extension it should be so I can rename it If you’re on Linux on macOS, you’ll have access to the `file` command-line tool which can do it effectively. In a couple of lines of shell scripting you can even have it auto-change the extension. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_(command)

I had someone try to tell me this or some similar alternative method once, but for this particular use-case my method seemed faster. Usually I'm viewing the dir with the file in ranger, hit r (shortcut for :open_with ), type mpv, enter, I in mpv for info, q to quit, a in ranger to rename the file with old name pretyped in. It's a pretty smooth workflow. Assuming I start from the same place in ranger I have to press c…

> The shell script idea is neat.

Could be something as simple as:

  file_path="${1}"
  mime="$(file --mime-type --brief "${file_path}")"
  ext="${mime#image/}"
  mv "${file_path}" "${file_path%.*}.${ext}"
That does no checks (e.g. is the file an image) and may not work on something on something like a video, but it’ll do for common image types such as png, jpeg, webp, heic, gif…

Re: Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player

#366

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway11747 wrote: post #364
latexr wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Far from me to defend the whole mpv team[1], but the dev in that thread is a ghost (deleted user). I remember them, they were always rude and eventually got kicked out of the project and loudly complained about “being removed from the project [they] created”. I never found the exact reason why, though I can’t help but think the attitude had something to do with it. [1] Some are quite nice and competent. Others are ex…

The last issue that caused them to leave was their desire to move mpv to their own build system, which they believed they could write in a weekend. Other mpv developers thought that was a stupid idea and argued in favor of something more standard, such as meson. That was the last straw for both sides.

[deleted]

Re: Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player

#367

Post by boomlinde »

imiric wrote: post #230
The_Colonel wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dev said they are happy to accept patch for this feature. Remember that you're not entitled to demand new features, as a (non-paying) user, you can't allocate dev's time to work on what you want.

This card is played too often by developers who only want to work on features they personally find interesting or worthwhile. Yes, you realistically cannot implement everything every user wants, but at the same time your software is meant to solve problems. Keeping direct communication with your users, and understanding what they find useful or not, should be the driving force of the design and features of your app.…

> Yes, you realistically cannot implement everything every user wants, but at the same time your software is meant to solve problems.

It's a question of whose problems. It's highly unlikely that we perceive the same problems in the same order of priority, so why should I donate my time to your problems when I am already wishing for more time to implement the solutions to my own? In commercial software there's an obvious incentive to work on features that are in demand by people who will pay for them. Expecting people to act like that incentive still exists even when it doesn't is insane.

> I've been on both sides of this discussion, as an OSS maintainer and user, and have experience with demanding users and arrogant and, yes, _lazy_ developers alike.

The gall to call someone who doesn't want to work on your problems for free "lazy"... Now imagine that you voluntarily participate in a very active OSS project and there are tens of people like you who extend that massive middle finger over and over whenever they can't convince you to donate a work week to their esoteric dream feature.

> Let's stop the narrative that users don't have the right to request features because they're not paying customers, and that this is driving developers to burn out.

The "narrative", again, is "that you're not entitled to demand new features, as a (non-paying) user, you can't allocate dev's time to work on what you want." This is the card you insist is played too often, not that "users don't have the right to request features". I don't see how you could honestly get these two things mixed up.

> Keeping direct communication with your users, and understanding what they find useful or not, should be the driving force of the design and features of your app.

Who are you to decide what should motivate me?

Re: Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player

#368

Post by Bluestein »

GuB-42 wrote: post #361
wrasee wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But he didn't "just" say no: > If it's so easy, why are you not doing it? Talk is cheap. > I'll be waiting for your patch. Surely you're not as lazy and incompetent as the existing volunteer developers. I'd say that is pretty toxic. Specifically, that is no way to talk about other volunteer developers that contribute their time. It is precisely the kind of language that keeps people away from contributing to open sou…

This is taken out of context. He actually respects contributors, including their decision to not implement reverse play. The meaning here is "if you think the existing contributors are as incompetent and lazy as you are implying, then do better". I think he got caught up in the argument and that he should have just put the question in a FAQ entry and lock the thread before people start mentioning nazis.

> lock the thread before people start mentioning nazis.

Which will invariably happen. What was that "rule" called again?

Re: Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player

#369

Post by diggan »

metroholografix wrote: post #302
sph wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You speak as if VLC is the pinnacle of video player technology. I know it is an open source darling, but it's been a buggy, overengineered mess since forever, which is why many use alternatives as mpv, IINA when I used macOS, SMplayer, etc. On fact, with all due respect, I never understood why VLC was so widely praised. It is the only player to stutter for me on Windows, to get lost in its settings page, to have a te…

I always saw VLC as subpar. A typical case of software that's just trying to copy what the pioneers do. As we all know, mediocrity it not antithetical to popularity, and VLC has become very popular indeed. However, it never pushed the envelope in terms of codecs, features and performance and as a result was never at the forefront of opensource video playing: mplayer got the ball rolling with rapid breakthroughs inclu…

> I always saw VLC as subpar. A typical case of software that's just trying to copy what the pioneers do.

What pioneer is/was VLC trying to copy? Media Player Classic? Windows Media Player? Before VLC, the ecosystem of video players was a mess, and if you came across a format you didn't already had installed codecs for, chances were you couldn't play that file. But VLC always could play it, no matter what file, as long as it said it was a video file.

> However, it never pushed the envelope in terms of codecs

VLC literally took over the world because you could install VLC and VLC only, and stop having to care about codecs at all, at the time at least. Maybe today it's different, because the ideas of VLC already spread, but at the time, things were different.

I personally use mpv most of the times today, but when I got started with computers and didn't understand as much as I do now, installing codecs to be able to view some video I just downloaded was a pretty confusing task. CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) for MPC helped a lot, but to even get to that point took some time.

Re: Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player

#370

Post by latexr »

sureIy wrote: post #305
romanows wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was hoping that mpv would work a bit better than vlc for sending video to chromecast, but unfortunately, another similarly amusing thread: https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/issues/177

Ghost is my soulmate. As a OSS maintainer, I feel that. Not a week goes by without some random dude coming to my repos expecting I implement whatever they ask, or else be called a dick. Particularly: you don’t have to use mpv if it doesn’t do what you want it to do, and don’t bust my ** because of it.

> Ghost is my soulmate. As a OSS maintainer, I feel that.

You also close issues without even trying to understand what they’re about?

https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/issues/177#issuecomment-29...

https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/issues/177#issuecomment-62...

> some random dude coming to my repos expecting I implement whatever they ask, or else be called a dick.

If that’s what you took from that discussion, I sincerely recommend you take a break. You may be experiencing burnout. It’s of course your choice to not implement something you don’t want in your project, but let’s not pretend everyone making a request, especially people who have shown research are dicks out to get you.

I tell you this as fellow open-source maintainer. I’ve learned over the years that if people opening issues are a frequent source of frustration, the first step is to investigate how I can make that less of an issue (e.g. using a GitHub template that forces a specific kind of action) and secondly realise that I need some distance and to relax. When you feel like everyone is an asshole, it’s probably just you.

By the way, that maintainer in particularly was known for lashing out at the smallest things and being rude unprovoked. Perhaps consider reading more of the history before calling them your soulmate.

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