What you need to know before touching a video file • Hacker News Board

Re: What you need to know before touching a video file

#21

Post by dylan604 » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 3:27 PM UTC

webdevver wrote: post #2

video format world is one where you nope out pretty quick once you realize how many moving pieces there are. ffmpeg seems ridiculously complicated, but infact its amazing the amount of work that happens under the hood when you do ffmpeg -i input.mp4 output.webm and tbh theyve made the interface about as smooth as can be given the scope of the problem.

this complication causing people to nope out has made my career. for everyone that decides it is too complicated and is only the realm of experts, my career has been made that much more secure. sadly, i've worked with plenty of video that has clearly been made by someone that should have "noped out"

Re: What you need to know before touching a video file

#22

Post by gruez » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 3:27 PM UTC

happytoexplain wrote: post #19

I'm always amazed when I see how many people are unfamiliar with VLC hate. It was notorious (to the point of it being a popular meme topic) for video artifacts, slow/buggy seeking, bloated/clumsy UI/menus, having very little format support out of the box, and buggy subtitles. I assume nowadays it's much better, since it seems popular, but its reputation will stick with me forever.

>It was notorious (to the point of it being a popular meme topic) for [...] having very little format support out of the box

???

I thought the meme was that it played basically everything? At least compared to windows media player or whatever.

The other items I can't say I've noticed, but then again I only play the most common of files (eg. h.264/h.265 with english subtitles in a mkv) so maybe it's something that only happens with unusual formats/encodes.

edit: based on other comments (eg. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46465349), it looks like it might indeed be caused by uncommon files that I haven't encountered.

Re: What you need to know before touching a video file

#23

Post by dooglius » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 3:28 PM UTC

happytoexplain wrote: post #19

I'm always amazed when I see how many people are unfamiliar with VLC hate. It was notorious (to the point of it being a popular meme topic) for video artifacts, slow/buggy seeking, bloated/clumsy UI/menus, having very little format support out of the box, and buggy subtitles. I assume nowadays it's much better, since it seems popular, but its reputation will stick with me forever.

What year was this? I don't know there has ever been a normal format it doesn't support, and I think this has been the case for at least 15 years.

Re: What you need to know before touching a video file

#24

Post by MallocVoidstar » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 3:29 PM UTC

Etheryte wrote: post #17

embedding-shape wrote: post #9

It seems really weirdly written. It's written with a lot of authority, like saying "Don't use VLC" and "Don't use Y" yet provides no reasoning for those things. Just putting "Trust me, just don't" doesn't suddenly mean I trust the author more, it probably has the opposite effect. Some sections seem to differ based on if the reader knows/doesn't know something, but I thought the article was supposed to be for the latt…

Exactly, very hard to take the rest of it seriously after the VLC bit. VLC has literally never left me hanging, across I don't know how many decades. It's gonna take more than a trust me bro to challenge that.

IIRC VLC used the wrong primaries for converting to RGB for a long time (years) even after it being reported to them as wrong

Re: What you need to know before touching a video file

#25

Post by gruez » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 3:30 PM UTC

MallocVoidstar wrote: post #24

Etheryte wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, very hard to take the rest of it seriously after the VLC bit. VLC has literally never left me hanging, across I don't know how many decades. It's gonna take more than a trust me bro to challenge that.

IIRC VLC used the wrong primaries for converting to RGB for a long time (years) even after it being reported to them as wrong

>even after it being reported to them as wrong

Source?

Re: What you need to know before touching a video file

#26

Post by dylan604 » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 3:30 PM UTC

Jabrov wrote: post #6

What's wrong with VLC?

my biggest pet peeve was that VLC was always considered a streamer and treated local files as streams as well. for the longest time, stepping within the video was not possible. reverse play was also a bane as well, even with i-frame only content. i have long found players that are better for me, but still find myself using VLC frequently because it still has features these other players do not.

Re: What you need to know before touching a video file

#27

Post by u_sama » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 3:34 PM UTC

dooglius wrote: post #23

happytoexplain wrote: post #19

I'm always amazed when I see how many people are unfamiliar with VLC hate. It was notorious (to the point of it being a popular meme topic) for video artifacts, slow/buggy seeking, bloated/clumsy UI/menus, having very little format support out of the box, and buggy subtitles. I assume nowadays it's much better, since it seems popular, but its reputation will stick with me forever.

What year was this? I don't know there has ever been a normal format it doesn't support, and I think this has been the case for at least 15 years.

I dropped VLC circa 2019 for all the reasons mentioned and ever since I use exclusively MPV, both on Windows and Linux.

So at least from those times

Re: What you need to know before touching a video file

#28

Post by gruez » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 3:34 PM UTC

swiftcoder wrote: post #3

Really good quickstart guide

>Really good quickstart guide

It really isn't. You have to scroll 75% of the way through the document before you it tells you what to actually type in. Everything before (9000+ words) is just ranty exposition that might be relevant, but is hardly "quick".

Re: What you need to know before touching a video file

#29

Post by dspillett » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 3:35 PM UTC

g4zj wrote: post #14

I'm curious what the issue is with using Handbrake? I use it all the time on macOS and it's generally a simple and effective tool for my purposes.

If you search the page you'll find a reference to having “numerous foot guns”.

I can't say I've experienced either of the ones mentioned, but I have had trouble in the past with output resolution selection (ending up with a larger file than expected with the encoding resolution much larger than the intended display resolution). User error, of course, but that tab is a bit non-obvious so it might be fair to call it a footgun.

Re: What you need to know before touching a video file

#30

Post by jlarocco » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 3:38 PM UTC

happytoexplain wrote: post #19

I'm always amazed when I see how many people are unfamiliar with VLC hate. It was notorious (to the point of it being a popular meme topic) for video artifacts, slow/buggy seeking, bloated/clumsy UI/menus, having very little format support out of the box, and buggy subtitles. I assume nowadays it's much better, since it seems popular, but its reputation will stick with me forever.

I've never had problems with VLC, and I've used it off and on for 20 years.

I don't doubt that there's some obscure, elite videophile hate towards it, but I'm hardly going to stop using it because a few random internet strangers hate on it.